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Plato  Paved  the  Way 


"Fate  seized  this  favorable  time  to  ensnare  us. 


(Frontispiece,  See  Page  24) 


Plato 
Paved  the  Way 

By 

Helen  Starkey 


Frontispiece  by 

Hermann  Heyer 


New    York 

The  Neale  Publishing   Company 
1913 


Copyright,  1913,  by 
THE  NEALE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

(Letter  from  Fred  Winselli  to  Kate  Holbrook, 
Cosmopolitan.) 

NEW  YORK,  March  10,  1913. 
Dear  Kate: 

Your  letter  came  to  greet  me  this  fine  morning, 
and  as  I.  read  your  words  stating  you  would 
reach  this  city  to-morrow,  I  can  guarantee  with 
bonds  that  the  morning  is  not  brighter,  or  more  ra- 
diant, than  are  my  happy  thoughts  at  this  mo- 
ment. 

I  will  call  in  the  evening,  as  requested,  and  I 
gratefully  note  your  wish  to  see  me  once  again 
after  our  chance  acquaintance  at  Brighton  Beach 
one  year  ago,  and  that  the  contents  of  my  letters 
from  port  to  port  during  your  long  trip  around  the 
world  have  not  discouraged  you  to  the  extent  of 
drawing  a  black  line  through  my  name  on  your 
list  of  friends.  This  is  causing  a  constantly  in- 
creasing obligation  to  you,  and  there  is  much  I 
could  say,  but  why  depreciate  the  value  of  hidden 
thoughts  by  expressionless  writing,  when  their 

5 

2138419 


6  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

true  appraisement  can  be  better  estimated  in  si- 
lence? 

And  now  that  our  schedule  is  closed,  your  last 
port  being  reached  in  a  short  time,  I  feel  that  I 
am  bidding  good-by  to  a  great  pleasure,  and  no 
more  can  I  look  on  the  map  for  the  numerous 
nooks  in  the  world  which  you  have  pictured  so 
fantastically,  and  over  which  there  has  been  many 
a  good  laugh. 

Your  numerous  letters  I  am  treasuring,  and, 
however  great  the  loss,  I  am  comforted  with  the 
joy  of  knowing  I  shall  soon  see  you,  and  with 
many  a  clinging  thought  of  the  past  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  days,  I  am 

Yours  ever  gratefully, 

FRED  WINSELLI. 


(Letter  from  Kate  Holbrook  to  Fred  Winselli.) 

Dear  Frederick: 

Did  I  tell  you  last  night  how  good  it  seems 
to  be  on  terra  firma  again*? 

I  wonder  if  my  imagination  helps  me  to  believe 
it  is  any  better  because  land  is  so  valuable  here 
in  New  York.  Why,  I  feel  that  I  am  walking 
on  millions,  and  even  the  dust  on  my  shoes  must 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  7 

be  precious,  but  I  did  not  think  of  the  collection 
of  real  estate  I  was  acquiring  when  walking  down 
that  wonderful  Broadway  with  you  last  evening. 
No,  I  was  thinking  of  something  quite  different, 
and  was  asking  myself  if  the  entire  population 
was  given  over  to  hedonic  influences'? 

The  throngs  I  saw  seemed  to  be  reaching  forth 
to  obtain  life,  and  more  life,  and  feverishly  seek- 
ing the  froth  instead  of  the  substance. 

At  that  very  moment  I  suddenly  became  imbued 
with  the  same  spirit  and  could  feel  my  heart  get- 
ting busy 'saying  good-by  to  that  portion  of  my  an- 
atomy located  under  my  Parisian  hat,  and  I  knew 
I  was  no  longer  sane.  The  words  adorable,  hand- 
some, responsive,  loyal,  noble  and  others  equally 
fine  were  chasing  one  another  through  my  brain 
as  I  looked  at  my  escort,  and  I  know  not  why, 
but  Othello's  dramatic  lament,  "I  kiss'd  thee, 
ere  I  kill'd  thee,"  went  following  after  all  those 
nice  adjectives,  therefore  do  you  wonder  that  I 
am  puzzled  in  trying  to  make  an  application  of 
my  hallucination?  You  must  see  I  was  bereft 
of  all  reason,  or  do  you  prefer  to  think  me  sane? 

Your  gay  city  can  woo  and  win  the  senses  with 
its  magic  touch,  and  I  am  entranced  with  every- 
thing here.  Some  of  the  buildings  almost  put 
the  Taj  Mahal  out  of  commission. 


8  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

This  line  (*?  )  was  just  to  say  Good  morning! 
Must  I  stop"?  I  think  I  must,  for  I  desire  to 
please  you.  To-night  the  friends  who  are  enter- 
taining me  have  some  plans  on  the  wing.  To- 
morrow evening  with  you,  the  next  day  I  start 
for  my  home  in  Chicago. 

Are  you  certain  to  come?  If  not,  I  know  I 
shall  cry  my  eyes  out — that  is — perhaps — at  least 
one  eye  out. 

Your  even  more  loving  than  exacting 

KATE  HOLBROOK. 


NEW  YORK,  March  14,  1913. 
Dear  Kate: 

My  messenger  brings  you  these  flowers  and 
sweets,  and  I  trust  they  will  remind  you  of  one 
who  reluctantly  says  Good-by! 

Wishing  you  a  pleasant  journey,  I  am 

Yours, 
FRED  WINSELLI. 


CHICAGO,  March  17,  1913. 
Dear  Fred: 

You  may  conclude  without  difficulty  from  the 
above  that  I  have  arrived  home  safely.     Thank 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  9 

you  for  your  parting  good  wishes  and  remem- 
brances and  the  delightful  evenings  I  had  with 
you. 

The  vibrations  of  your  voice  are  still  ringing 
in  my  ear,  and  I  am  certain  to  come  again,  as 
long  as  they  call  me. 

Did  I  sufficiently  express  my  gratitude  for  your 
nice  entertainment  while  I  was  in  New  York*? 

I  intended  to  repeat  my  thanks  to  you  ninety- 
nine  times  and  failed.  You  made  me  entirely 
speechless;  not  but  what  my  lips  were  quite  free. 
Oh,  yes !  It  was  only  a  silence  of  the  soul,  and  I 
needed  to  come  to  Chicago  because  this  city  can 
ballast  the  soul  and  keep  it  from  soaring  too  high, 
bringing  it  speedily  back  to  earth  again  if  any 
city  can  in  this  world,  and  I  am  right  here,  no 
longer  inhabiting  an  imaginary  space  above.  You 
will  understand  from  this  that  my  speech  has  re- 
turned. 

You  said  to  me  when  asking  for  a  continuance 
of  our  pen  and  ink  exchange  that  you  thought 
"nothing  so  fosters  facility  of  expression  as  letter 
writing." 

Without  doubt  you  are  right,  as  you  always  are, 
and  I  am  deeply  grateful  to  your  desire  for  prac- 
tice, as  I  should  feel  very  sorry  for  myself  if  you 
had  let  our  correspondence  go  to  eternal  smash. 


10          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

Since  that  is  your  chief  object  in  writing,  why 
not  read  some  book  together,  commenting  and  ex- 
changing ideas  concerning  it4? 

If  this  proposition  meets  with  your  approval 
please  suggest  some  interesting  novel,  which  will 
prove  to  be  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  us,  some- 
thing up  to  date,  for  I  hate  to  read  fossils,  not  too 
deep  for  the  sake  of  yours  truly,  and  not  history 
for  heaven's  sake. 

I  await  your  choice. 

Yours  hopefully, 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  March  22,  1913. 
Dear  Kate: 

Your  letter,  although  short,  contains  a  volume 
of  meaning.  I  shall  cherish  it,  as  I  do  your 
friendship.  This  is  the  one  recourse  I  can  resort 
to  that  gives  solace  and  aids  in  lifting  this  seem- 
ing cloud  that  overhangs  me. 

Whatever  has  occurred  to  create  of  its  own 
accord  this  bleakness  that  has  enshrouded  me  since 
last  I  saw  you  I  cannot  explain. 

I  knew  when  leaving  you  I  was  parting  from 
much,  but  the  realization  of  the  truth  did  not 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  11 

dawn  upon  me  until  I  was  forced  by  its  severity 
to  acknowledge  to  myself  on  my  way  homeward 
that  I  was  departing  from  you  whom  I  had  been 
longing  for  months  to  see,  and  I  have  cause  to 
believe  by  the  manner  in  which  you  spoke  I  possi- 
bly may  never  see  you  again.  This  greatly 
troubles  me,  and  I  trust  that  the  train  of  thoughts 
which  possessed  you  when  you  spoke  of  this  uncer- 
tainty was  only  the  product  of  a  moment's 
thought. 

I  am  encouraged  by  the  fact  that  you  will  con- 
tinue to  write,  and  I  am  even  willing  to  do  any- 
thing if  that  desired  blessing  may  be  vouchsafed 
to  me. 

Strange,  indeed,  are  the  circumstances  of  life; 
that  which  brings  happiness  ofttimes  also  brings 
the  same  degree  of  sorrow ;  this,  of  course,  is  a  fair 
distribution  of  feeling;  but  what  a  price  it  is  to 
exact  when  parting  from  one  who  has  caused  su- 
preme happiness. 

I  read  in  your  seeming  reluctance  to  leave  me 
a  hidden  reason,  Kate,  due  to  the  same  cause  that 
possessed  me  and  which  made  impossible  the  final- 
ity of  our  correspondence. 

You  are  certainly  causing  a  great  disturbance 
to  my  mind  and  I  only  hope  I  am  right  in  thinking 
it  is  mutual. 


12  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

If  what  I  have  conjectured  is  true,  and  it  is 
written  in  the  book  of  destiny  that  something  other 
than  division  will  happen,  time  alone  can  tell,  and 
until  such  time  we  must  be  guided  by  reason,  and 
not  let  blind  impulse  stand  in  our  way  or  become 
an  obstacle  in  our  daily  progress. 

You  have  taxed  me  to  the  utmost  by  your  re- 
quest for  a  sympathetic  reading  of  some  novel. 

I  have  not  the  time  for  light  reading.  When 
a  man  enters  the  field  of  strife  for  a  livelihood 
he  forgets  all  else  and  centers  his  mind  on  better- 
ing that  portion  of  his  knowledge  that  can  be 
adapted  to  his  work;  this  is  necessary  to  keep 
abreast  of  these  strenuous  times,  and  all  the  read- 
ing must  be  done  along  commercial  lines. 

I  used  to  find  pleasure  in  trying  to  solve  the 
intricate  problems  compounded  by  the  Philoso- 
phers of  old,  and  was  then  a  great  admirer  of 
Plato. 

Did  you  ever  delve  into  this  kind  of  work4?  It 
is  great  food  for  the  mind,  and  if  you  will  permit 
me  to  choose  this  author  I  should  be  greedily  eager 
to  accord  with  your  suggestion. 

I  am  displeased  with  myself  that  I  do  not  com- 
ply entirely  with  your  request,  especially  since  it 
is  made  so  disinterestedly  and  unselfishly  on  your 
part. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  13 

I  will,  undoubtedly,  be  immensely  benefited 
and  will  endeavor  to  show  my  appreciation  for 
your  effort  in  my  behalf  by  following  any  descrip- 
tion you  give  me,  and  answer  along  the  same 
outline  to  your  heart's  content. 

I  throw  myself  upon  your  mercy,  without  armor 
protection:  and  trust  the  wounds  will  not  be  too 
deep  for  youth  to  overcome :  I  am  certain  to  be 
on  safe  ground  when  I  assure  my  faltering  courage 
that  I  shall  not  be  half  starved.  You  will  surely 
spread  a  feast  where  Wisdom  will  sit  enthroned 
as  Queen  of  the  literary  revel. 

Yours  forever,  my  sweet  almoner, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  March  29,  1913. 
Dear  Frederick: 

Are  you  making  fun  of  me?  Just  continue  do- 
ing so,  please.  "Blessed  are  they  who  laugh,  for 
they  shall  inherit  the  Earth." 

I  know  that  you  know  I  have  never  read  one 
word  of  those  old  Philosophers,  and  until  this 
petition  from  you  written  in  a  jesting  mood  came 
to  me,  I  had  no  desire  to  read  their  works,  but  I 
am  doing  so  now.  Do  you  hear  me  through  the 


14          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

space  of  one  thousand  miles  when  I  tell  you  I  have 
been  spending  good  hours  every  day  reading  Plato, 
or  trying  to  do  so.  Gee !  but  it  is  difficult.  I 
like  it,  though,  and  since  I  regard  your  selection 
as  a  challenge,  I  am  in  the  spirit  to  pick  up  the 
glove  and  accept  all  conditions. 

To  prove  this,  and  in  accordance  with  my  de- 
termination, you  will  find  a  few  comments  at  the 
end  of  this  letter.  They  are,  of  course,  neces- 
sarily frivolous.  You  will  expect  nothing  else 
from  me,  and  I  would  not  attempt  to  be  serious. 
No,  indeed !  not  even  if  your  mind  does  need  food 
after  its  business-like  abstinence. 

I  have  placed  no  quotation  marks  for  the  dis- 
tinction may  be  easily  made  as  you  read,  and  it  is 
so  mixy  that  I  cannot  coldly  sort  the  words. 

Oh!  I  am  glad  to  live  in  this  age,  instead  of 
that,  for  women  held  such  an  inferior  place, 
though  there  is  no  disputing  the  fact  that  they 
had  the  pleasure  of  beholding  superior  men. 

Yes,  that  is  true,  but  then  we  are  not  debarred 
such  privileges  in  this  year  of  grace,  for  there  are 
the  great  and  renowned  baseball  managers.  We 
can  fix  our  minds  upon  these  masterpieces  of  na- 
ture. If  not,  why  not1? 

You  wrote  me  in  the  letter  I  received  at  Naples 
about  a  favorite  opera,  and  said  you  were  very 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  15 

fond  of  music,  being  something  of  a  musician 
yourself.  Did  you  attend  the  New  York  Mu- 
sical Convention?  Right  here  I  will  quote  you 
a  portion  of  a  speech  made  by  one  of  our  Chicago 
educators.  He  said:  "Eloquence,  poetry,  paint- 
ing, sculpture,  and  architecture  are  the  five  fingers 
of  the  hand,  and  each  is  harmonized  and  vitalized 
by  music,  which  is  the  blood  of  all  the  branches. 
All  the  English  poets  are  moved  by  it.  The 
fact  that  England  is  so  world  powerful  is  due  to 
the  effect  of  the  waves  of  the  ocean  making  a 
rhythmic  music  on  the  coasts  of  the  British  Isles, 
stimulating  the  mentality  of  the  men  to  accom- 
plish great  deeds." 

What  do  you  think  of  that!  Isn't  it  a  new 
idea?  Is  this  the  reason  Elizabeth  was  such  a 
great  queen,  and  that  Lady  Jane  Grey  read  Plato 
so  understandingly  that  she  could  die  bravely? 
Or,  do  you  believe  the  rhythm  is  only  inspiring  to 
men,  and  makes  no  successful  impression  on  the 
female  mind?  I  know  this  is  a  very  beautiful 
thought,  even  if  the  male  mind  has  the  monopoly. 

I  must  confess,  when  one  sees  what  slaves  the 
people  of  India  are  to  the  English,  that  the  influ- 
ence of  music  or  any  other  beneficent  sway  having 
anything  to  do  with  success  there  is  not  apparent 
to  the  naked  eye. 


16          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

India  is  not  the  land,  however,  that  we  are 
journeying  toward.  Let  us  now  be  good  friends 
while  we  join  hands  and  minds  (poor  me!)  in 
a  fellow  pilgrimage  back  nearly  twenty-three  hun- 
dred years,  to  the  land  of  Ancient  Greece,  to 
the  land  of  Plato.  And  from  henceforth  I  ex- 
pect to  have  a  rush  of  love  to  the  head,  whenever 
I  combine  that  great  philosopher  and  yourself. 
Good-night,  fellow  traveler.  So  sorry  for  you. 

Lovingly, 
KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK   I.       THEME JUSTICE 

Comments 

1.  Plato  was  out  for  a  World's  record,  and  he 
scored  with  his  endless  dialogues. 

2.  His  pitching  was  phenomenal,  being  a  left- 
hand  twirler  as  well  as  right,  and  he  could  rotate 
with  such  -rapidity  that  the  curves  seemed  easy 
and  simple,  although  this  seeming  simplicity  hid 
the  deep  meaning  of  his  play. 

3.  Socrates  was  an  old-time  manager  of  the 
game  and  exercised  his  tireless  jaw  while  on  the 
lookout  as  catcher  to  put  Cephalus  out  on  a  foul. 
Seeing  this  the  wise  one  at  the  bat  headed  him 
by  saying  he  was  indifferent  to  money  because  it 
was  inherited.     The  makers  of  fortunes  have  a 
second  love  of  money  as  a  creation  of  their  own, 
hence  they  are  bad  company  as  their  conversation 
is  entirely  about  the  praises  of  wealth.     This  gave 
him  a  walk  to  first  base. 

4.  The  manager  here  announced  that  Justice  is 
the  great  theme  and  invited  all  to  make  a  bold 
play  to  hit  a  swift  ball  into  this  dense  cloud,  and 

17 


i8  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 


to  break  away  in  determining  if  justice  is  virtue 
and  wisdom,  or  evil  and  folly? 

5.  Thrasymachus  here  seized  the  bat,  being  ram- 
pant, and  yelled :     If  you  can't  show  more  speed 
in  your  argument,  back  to  the  bush  league  for  you. 
He  struck  the  ball  to  center  field,  making  a  two- 
base  hit,  still  yelling.     Injustice  is  virtue,  do  you 
hear  that*?     You  short  stop !     Injustice  is  virtue. 
Do  you  catch  the  cream  of  my  good  play?     Get 
in  the  game  there ! 

6.  The  manager  said,  I'd  like  to  see  a  play  like 
that  get  the  best  of  me.     Injustice  creates  divi- 
sions, hatred  and  fighting,  while  justice  imparts 
harmony  and  friendship.     I  do  not  believe  in- 
justice to  be  more  gainful  than  justice  and  the 
visiting  bunch  must  see  that  it  does  not  pay  to 
tell  lies. 

7.  Cleitophon,   the  coaching  wonder,   tries   to 
help  Thrasy  steal  a  base,  and  declared  justice  can- 
not produce  injustice.     True  art  is  faultless  and 
his  man  got  up  on  his  toes  and  with  a  wild  dash 
scored  a  run. 

8.  Socrates,  not  being  afraid  while  wearing  the 
muzzle,  and  the  Ump  giving  him  time,  proceeded 
to  say:     Has  not  the  soul  an  end  which  nothing 
else  can  fulfill?     For  example,   to  superintend, 
and   command,    and   deliberate.     Are   not  these 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  19 

functions  proper  to  the  soul?  Can  they  be 
rightly  assigned  to  any  other,  and  is  not  life  to 
be  reckoned  among  the  ends  of  the  soul,  and  has 
it  not  excellence  also*?  Then  the  evil  soul  must 
necessarily  be  an  evil  ruler,  and  the  good  soul  a 
good  ruler. 

My  men,  I  am  ruler  here,  and  if  you  will  watch 
for  a  good  play  and  make  it,  dust  the  plate,  not 
get  caught  trying  to  steal  home,  remain  faithful 
to  the  bat  while  pounding  the  sphere,  and  be 
swift  to  turn  the  trick,  and  see  to  the  fielding,  I 
will  carry  you  to  the  World's  Championship,  and 
nothing  can  stop  you.  We  will  hold  that  posi- 
tion, I  promise  you,  and  will  keep  faithfully  my 
promise  to  you. 

9.  Thrasymachus,    having    made    the    second 
tally,  blushed  and  perspired,  saying  the  ignorant 
must  learn  from  the  wise,  still  maintaining  his 
position  and  arguing  for  the  cause  of  injustice. 

10.  Socrates,  having  stopped  at  nothing  in  the 
stretch,  now  asserts  from  the  arguments :     I  know 
not  what  justice  is,  whether  it  is,  or  is  not,  a  virtue. 
Nor  can  I  say  whether  the  just  man  is  happy  or 
unhappy,   and  I  will  further  make  research  in 
October,  at  which  time  we  will  fight  some  heroic 
battles  on  the  diamond  against  the  pennant  win- 
ners. 


20          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

NEW  YORK,  March  31,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

Your  unselfish  letter  in  which  I  see  the  em- 
bodiment of  a  noble  character,  given  over  entirely 
to  my  enlightenment  of  mind,  has  found  a  warm 
welcome  within  the  portals  of  a  spot  reserved  for 
you  alone,  and  to  me  you  are  a  joy  every  one  of 
the  numerous  times  I  am  with  you  in  solitude  of 
thought  and  companionship  of  spirit. 

As  my  instructor,  you  must  quickly  endeavor  to 
divine  the  things  I  am  most  ignorant  of,  and  make 
the  illumination  as  plain  as  possible,  that  I  may 
be  capable  of  understanding  all  your  riotous  and 
noisy  thoughts. 

Your  comments  on  Plato  have  been  carefully 
read  and,  in  return,  I  will  make  the  supplementary 
suggestion  that  I  will  give  mine  at  the  completion 
of  the  ten  books  of  the  Republic, — that  is,  when 
we  have  read  all  ten  of  them. 

This  I  faithfully  promise  to  do,  and  I  shall  ask 
you  to  send  yours  in  those  letters  that  the  future 
time  is  promising  me. 

In  my  effort  to  separate  your  words  from  those 
of  Plato  I  had  such  a  brain  struggle  that  I  did 
not  know  whether  the  following  moment  would 
be  my  next,  or  my  last.  I  do  not  blame  you  for 
your  omission  of  quotation  marks,  and  as  heroes 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  21 

are  not  all  dead  yet,  pray  do  not  hesitate  to  con- 
tinue in  your  attitude  of  independence. 

I  am  moved  to  displace  all  doubts  you  might 
have  as  to  my  having  been  endowed  with  sufficient 
strength  to  bear  up  under  so  vigorous  a  strain  by 
assuring  you  I  am  in  perfect  health,  and  in  com- 
plete sympathy  with  a  certain  iconoclast. 

Your  most  admiring  worshiper, 

FREDERICK. 


CHICAGO,  April  4,  1913. 
Dear  Fred: 

Has  fortune  smiled  so  radiantly  on  me  as  you 
imply?  Can  there  be  a  domain  reserved  for  me 
alone  as  you  say?  Is  it  located  in  the  mind? 
You  do  not  specify  and  I  fancy  it  must  be  in  the 
cerebellum,  as  I  am  unable  to  flatter  myself  that 
I  occupy  so  large  a  space  as  the  cerebrum.  I  ac- 
cept with  gratitude  as  much  as  I  can  get,  and  will 
strive  to  retain  my  present  possession,  while  work- 
ing along  the  lines  of  expansion. 

Since  you  solicit  instruction  in  the  direction 
most  needed  I  will  undertake  the  lesson,  and  I 
believe  you  will  like  it.  Let  me  add  that  any  up- 
to-date  girl  could  easily  discover  what  you  are 
deficient  in. 


22  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

You  must  not  think  your  sarcasm  is  wasted  on 
me.  I  am  somewhat  piqued  and  just  a  little  dis- 
couraged, but  it  is  such  an  effort  to  be  real  angry 
that  I  will  ignore  it  and  write  about  something 
else. 

You  told  me  in  a  previous  letter  that  you  work 
hard,  and  are  obliged  to  concentrate  your  thoughts 
on  commercial  lines  or  fall  behind. 

Poor  fellow!  My  sympathy  is  with  you  in 
such  a  dire  calamity.  I  only  wish  you  could  read 
"The  Bondsman"  and  feel  your  heart  swell  with 
the  heroism  of  friendship;  "The  Manxman"  and 
find  tears  in  your  eyes  over  the  pathos  of  a  baby's 
bonnet;  "The  Right  of  Way"  to  arouse  your 
compassion  for  a  man  gone  wrong;  "The  Weav- 
ers" to  stir  your  soul  with  the  lesson  of  sacrifice; 
"The  Iron  Woman"  to  teach  the  hard  task  of 
every  day  problems;  and  "The  Garden  of  Allah" 
to  compel  all  your  attention  until  the  last  word 
is  read.  Even  a  good  dinner  would  be  forgotten, 
so  absorbed  would  you  become. 

Can  I  arouse  your  interest*?  No,  I  think  not. 
You  are  inflexible,  and  nothing  could  turn  you 
from  the  course  of  reading  or  study  you  are  pur- 
suing. I  like  you  anyway.  Even  your  unyield- 
ing character  does  not  make  me  your  bitter  enemy, 
but  I  wish  you  would  bend  a  little. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  23 

Do  you  recall  how  happy  we  were  at  Brighton 
Beach  that  day  we  first  met*?  Paradise  for  me, 
had  it  not  been  so  intensely  difficult  to  associate 
the  thought  of  heaven  and  the  angels  with  that 
locality. 

Oh!  isn't  that  foolishly  funny  to  compare  those 
two  places'?  No  matter,  it  is  down,  and  after  all, 
why  not*?  Any  spot  is  Paradise  under  certain 
conditions.  Just  a  little  stretch  of  an  elastic  im- 
agination and  it  would  seem  that  the  music  of  the 
Merry-Go-Round  was  the  aforesaid  angels  play- 
ing on  their  harps;  the  moon  in  the  sky,  with  the 
sparkling  diamonds  in  the  ocean.  The  beauti- 
ful night  with  vivid  life  and  beauty  coming  to 
meet  us  gives  us  a  chance  to  conjure  a  little  and 
think  we  are  near  the  gates  of  that  ideal  place. 
At  any  rate,  let  us  compromise  and  call  it  near- 
heaven. 

That  was  some  time  ago,  and  at  this  time  of  the 
year  in  this  locality  I  can  not  see  the  center  star 
in  the  belt  of  Orion,  our  star  that  followed  me 
around  the  world  and  which  united  us  in  thought 
during  all  that  time.  We  have  nothing  to  bind 
us  now  except  Plato,  and  I'm  afraid  you  do  not 
want  me  to  send  any  more  comments,  but  I  love 
Book  2.  Shall  I  weary  you  with  my  breaking  of 
idols  ^  May  I  send  them*?  I  wonder  if  your 


24          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

thoughts  are  traveling  as  far  as  Chicago  to-night. 
Are  you  sparing  a  few  minutes  to  think  of  me? 

Affectionately, 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  April  10,   1913. 
My  dear  Kate: 

You  wonder  if  I  think  of  you.  This  question 
from  one  who  knows  so  well  that  my  thoughts 
many  times  a  day  wander  to  Chicago  surprises  me. 
Truly,  the  fact  that  I  am  writing  at  this  time  only 
too  plainly  speaks  my  mental  inclination. 

Does  it  not  vividly  appear  to  you  that  the 
thoughts  occupying  the  forum  are  of  you1?  They 
bid  me  observe  the  trend  of  feeling  which  has 
taken  place  to  the  present  time,  gradually  ripen- 
ing from  an  accidental  acquaintance  into,  dare  I 
say,  affection? 

It  is  true  we  were  not  introduced  by  the  usual 
agents.  Fate  seized  this  favorable  time  to  en- 
snare us,  but  I  am  ready  to  swear  to  you,  Kate, 
dear,  that  any  place,  Brighton  Beach  or  elsewhere, 
even  under  adverse  conditions,  rain  or  shine, 
would  be  a  heaven  with  you.  Can  you  not  see 
from  this  that  I  am  learning  my  lesson?  The  one 
any  up-to-date  girl  knows  that  I  need. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  25 

There  are  some  experiences  that  become  a  part 
of  oneself,  and  they  cannot  be  put  from  you. 

I  do  not  think  either  of  us  will  ever  forget  the 
romance  and  impressions  of  that  beautiful  night. 
The  storm  which  preceded  only  made  it  the  more 
wonderful;  the  soft  veil  of  mist  spiritualized  the 
surrounding  objects,  and  rendered  a  continual 
manifestation  of  the  mystery  of  Nature. 

The  artists  in  the  Orient  employ  this  vapory 
craftsmanship  in  their  paintings,  and  how  fasci- 
nating are  those  shadowy  pictures  they  create,  and 
how  they  stir  the  imagination. 

China  may  again  become  a  great  power  in  art 
as  it  was  for  many  hundred  years  in  times  past. 

Their  shackles  are  now  removed,  and  the  awak- 
ening of  this  new  Republic  will  be  speedy;  their 
natural  gifts  in  art  will  lead  them  in  that  direc- 
tion, where  they  will  acquire  high  attainments. 

I  am  awaiting  your  second  bewildering  com- 
ments upon  Plato,  and  I  may  add,  I  am  impa- 
tiently desiring  their  possession. 

Good-by,  my  mist-crowned  friend. 

Your  own  FRED. 

CHICAGO,  April  15,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

My  thoughts  are  driven  by  the  west  wind  east- 


26          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

ward,  urged  on  by  my  heart  beats,  but  fearing  the 
unreliability  of  such  a  carrier,  I  am  depending 
upon  unpoetical,  though  trustworthy  Uncle  Sam, 
and  am  sending  substantial  written  messages. 

Thank  you  for  your  letter.  What  can  I  say 
more  unless  to  add  that  I  cannot  be  anything  but 
pleased  with  your  good  wishes,  and  I  intend  to 
say  nice  things  to  you.  I  am  not  to  be  thwarted 
by  any  fear  you  may  have  that  you  may  become 
vain.  Vanity  is  commendable  because  it  makes 
us  strive  for  a  good  appearance. 

I  am  proud  of  you,  not  for  the  reason  that  you 
are  so  good  to  look  at,  as  you  know,  for  I  value 
much  more  your  spirit  and  mind.  Upon  second 
thought,  the  outward  show  is  not  to  be  ignored, 
for  it  has  made  a  deep  impression  and  I  must  give 
it  full  credit.  Now,  read  that  and  become  vain, 
since  that  is  the  way  I  want  you  to  be. 

I  cannot  see  you  in  all  your  pomp  and  will 
give  myself  the  joy  of  reading  your  letter  once 
again,  for  I  am  always  happy  when  with  thee, 
thou  loved  one. 

Somehow  I  keep  getting  into  the  danger  zone 
and,  to  be  very  safe,  I  will  now  become  wise  and 
compel  my  thoughts  to  the  distant  Orient. 

I  also  feel  great  enthusiasm  over  this  Chinese 
Republic.  They  are  patient,  industrious,  adapt- 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          27 

able  people,  and  very  quick  to  learn,  and  when 
universal  education  does  its  magnificent  work,  as 
it  will  do,  they  will  rise  to  the  renown  they  en- 
joyed in  ancient  Cathay. 

I  think  they  are  disposed  by  natural  instinct  to 
remain  calm  and  to  seek  freedom  from  disturb- 
ance. Please  go  to  Hong  Kong  and  try  to  con- 
jecture what  must  have  been  the  cost  to  Chinese 
pride  in  surrendering  to  the  devouring  English 
that  beautiful  city  and  splendid  harbor,  in  order 
to  settle  "some  political  difficulties  without  the 
horrors  of  a  continued  war. 

I  will  send  comments  in  my  next  letter,  since 
you  wish  to  have  them.  Good-by !  and  I  am  say- 
ing to  my  messenger : 

"Wind  waft  a  message, 
A  message  from  me, 
I  am  weary  of  waiting, 
Beloved,  for  thee" 

Yours  ever, 

KATE. 

NEW  YORK,  April  19,   1913. 
My  dear  Kate: 

Now  that  I  know  the  elements  carry  messages 
this  way  for  me,  I  will  feel  a  thrill  pass  through 


28          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

me  whenever  a  zephyr  blows ;  and  if  I  may  I  will 
gauge  your  feelings  by  the  velocity  of  the  west- 
wind;  hoping  and  praying  it  will  blow  hard  and 
develop  a  cyclone;  the  returning  east-wind  will 
carry  back  to  you  my  heart  beats,  and  its  signifi- 
cance of  storm  will  denote  to  you  the  rapid  pulsa- 
tion of  that  organ  for  you. 

I  can  readily  understand  you  do  not  desire  our 
letters  to  be  entirely  filled  with  personal  matters, 
and  since  I  placed  myself  under  your  direction  I 
will  call  resignation  to  my  aid  and  apply  myself 
to  discussing  the  deeds  of  an  age  gone  by. 

There  is  one  undisputed  fact  that  stands  boldly 
in  the  limelight  in  which  history  and  mythol- 
ogy are  in  accord,  and  that  is  the  determined 
curiosity  exhibited  by  that  portion  of  the  human 
species  which  nature  evidently  intended  to  make 
her  masterpiece.  This  is  demonstrated  by  Eve, 
Pandora,  Psyche,  in  the  past,  and  may  I  add 
to  the  long  unmentioned  list  the  name  of  Kate 
among  others  in  the  present1? 

I  think  the  women  of  this  age  use  the  word 
research,  which  is  much  nicer  and  entirely  covers 
the  subject. 

There  arises  from  the  mass  of  all  that  has  passed 
so  much  of  interest  and  heroism  that  it  confuses 
the  mind  to  make  a  selection. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          29 

I  will  take  for  my  topic  that  never  failing  source 
of  interest,  Ancient  Greece.  We  have  seen  the 
perfection  reached  by  the  Athenians;  the  display 
of  the  fertile  intellect  of  her  great  philosophers; 
the  generalship  of  Alexander  the  Great,  who  testi- 
fied to  the  wisdom  of  Aristotle,  his  teacher;  the 
credit  we  are  compelled  to  give  statesmen ;  the  ad- 
miration we  lavish  on  such  names  as  Phidias  and 
Praxiteles,  who  rendered  into  stone  the  moods  of 
the  soul;  the  teachings  of  Zeno;  all  the  wonderful 
writers  of  drama,  history  and  poetry. 

These  men  by  their  genius  laid  the  foundation 
of  all  literature.  Their  achievements  carried  to 
foreign  lands  an  inspiration  to  strive  for  honors 
in  literature  and  to  spread  among  their  own  na- 
tions this  treasure  of  learning,  and  an  impetus  was 
thus  given  to  education  in  many  lands. 

The  pages  of  history  give  us  accounts  of  how 
even  the  "Barbarous  Turks"  upon  their  entrance 
into  Athens  were  restrained  from  a  further  destruc- 
tion of  the  city  by  a  realization  of  the  magnifi- 
cence of  the  architecture  they  beheld. 

The  Turkish  generals,  possessed  as  they  were  of 
greed  and  a  vengeful  nature  that  always  craved 
a  chance  to  avenge  themselves,  especially  upon 
a  people  who  long  held  sway,  realized  the  grandeur 
of  Athens,  its  museums,  gymnasiums  and  splen- 


30  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

dor  abundantly  displayed,  and  saw  fit  to  let  it 
stand  as  a  testimonial  of  greatness.  Turkey  de- 
serves credit  for  this,  if  for  nothing  more. 

We  further  find  that  the  people  of  nobility  from 
all  over  the  then  known  world  were  winding  their 
way  to  Hellas,  inducing  the  learned  Athenians  to 
visit  their  countries  and  establish  schools  in  the 
various  branches  of  Hellenic  studies.  Even 
Csesar  himself  journeyed  there  to  complete  his 
studies;  perfecting  his  oratory,  and  attaining  all 
good  points  he  could  from  them;  and  it  left  its 
mark,  those  attainments  having  been  the  admira- 
tion of  the  world  during  all  these  many  centu- 
ries. 

The  Greek  scholars  who  were  driven  from  their 
homes  to  seek  a  livelihood  and  a  field  for  their 
learning  were  distributed  all  over  Europe;  hence 
their  entrance  into  foreign  lands;  the  beginning 
of  the  introduction  of  Greek  methods;  and 
the  knowledge  thus  obtained  was  used  to  advan- 
tage, as  we  to-day  have  laws  in  our  country,  the 
roots  of  which  found  their  first  nourishment  in 
Athens. 

I  will  close  now  with  the  happy  thoughts  of 
you  in  my  mind. 

As  always,  yours  with  love, 

FRED. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  31 

CHICAGO,  April  24,  1913. 
Dear  Fred: 

Somehow  my  thoughts  of  you  are  regularly 
mixed  up  with  history  and  kindred  subjects,  yet 
I  do  not  quite  know  why  I  associate  a  New  Yorker 
with  ancient  facts  about  the  killing  of  men,  unless 
it  is  the  suggestion  of  extermination  of  one  another 
offered  by  the  struggle  of  the  great  financiers  there 
for  supremacy  in  wealth.  They  must  become  rich 
in  order  to  gain  commendation,  for  I  judge  no 
other  brand  of  man  is  acknowledged. 

Manhattan  is  a  hot-house  that  cultivates  noth- 
ing but  greenbacks,  yellow  flowers,  and  the  hidden 
microbes  which  produce  the  fever  for  gold,  an 
incurable  malady. 

The  poor  deluded  creatures  do  not  know  that 
if  they  would  have  flowers  in  the  garden  where 
true  happiness  grows  they  must  nurture  the  mind 
and  the  heart,  and  supplement  their  work  by  the 
addition  of  light  and  laughter.  I  don't  think  I 
will  be  a  missionary  and  endeavor  to  spread  this 
truth,  because  it  will  probably  be  labor  lost,  and 
since  I  have  no  faith  in  my  own  power  of  persua- 
sion I  would  better  join  you  in  your  travels. 

Then  back  to  ancient  history  we  go,  as  nothing 
in  the  killing  line  ought  to  harrow  up  your  soul. 
I  am  always  looking  for  something  pleasant  in 


32          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

those  old  recountings  of  facts,  but  nothing  ever 
appears  except — war,  war,  war,  never  ending. 
All  these  thousands  of  years  man  has  been  the 
most  vicious  animal  in  all  the  universe,  spending 
intellect  and  money  that  should  have  been  used 
for  the  good  of  the  world,  and  I  am  never  able  to 
stop  wondering  why  Hellas  did  not  achieve  all  its 
victories  by  the  excellence  of  art  and  literature, 
and  not  by  force  of  arms.  I  think  it  was  the  fash- 
ion to  kill,  and  even  with  their  great  polish  of 
mind  they  could  not  resist  the  mode. 

They  must  have  just  been  suffering  for  a  fight 
when  Alcibiades  got  busy;  his  reckless  and  dis- 
astrous expeditions,  without  success  from  any 
source,  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  splendid  activ- 
ities of  Athens,  a  blow  she  never  recovered  from, 
and  to  this  day  we  grieve  over  the  loss. 

While  we  are  discussing  the  joy  of  killing,  why 
not  give  Sparta  a  hearing1?  Those  stoical  men 
could  be  happy  on  the  rack  if  only  this  would 
better  strengthen  them  to  fight.  No  law  was 
good  to  them  unless  it  benefited  the  state.  And 
how  they  enjoyed  wholesale  murder.  They  were 
great  fighters.  Think  of  how  austere  their  lives 
were,  just  to  accomplish  this  one  purpose.  No 
wonder  Lycurgus  committed  suicide.  He  appar- 
ently never  knew  the  meaning  of  the  word 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  33 

pleasure  while  ruling  Sparta,  though,  strange  to 
say,  he  dedicated  a  statue  to  Laughter. 

He  spent  his  life  making  austere  laws  and  cus- 
toms, the  rigid  character  of  which  compelled  a 
simple  life. 

This  beautiful  world  has  been  given  us  to  en- 
joy, and  why  should  we  not  make  happiness  just 
because  it  is  summer;  or  because  we've  found  a 
good  book;  or  a  baseball  game  is  on;  or  some 
other  offering  is  near.  For  instance,  Book  II, 
which  I  enclose. 

You  will  frown  when  you  see  I  am  still  flippant, 
but  I  know  full  well  this  irresistible  Plato  bust- 
ness  will  finally  compel  me  to  be  serious,  and  lead 
my  thoughts  away  from  their  desecrating  godless 
excursions  to  a  full  realization  of  the  splendid 
stuff  I  am  reading,  and  then  I  shall  say  to  myself, 
hands  off ! 

Good-by,  from  your  distant  friend, 

KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK    II.       THEME JUSTICE 

Comments 

1.  Glancon  asks  just  what  we  can  all  answer 
so  easily.     In  which  of  the  classes  would  you  place 
Justice*?     Class  one,  amid  pleasures  and  enjoy- 
ments to  delight  us  for  a  time.     Class  two,  amid 
knowledge,  sight,  health,  which  are  desirable  not 
only  for  themselves,  but  also  for  their  results? 
Class  three,  gymnastics,  care  of  the  sick,  the  vari- 
ous ways  of  making  money*? 

In  which  of  these4? 

2.  Socrates  answers.     (You  know  he  was  so 
wise  it  hurt  him.)     In  that  class  desired  both  for 
their  own  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  their  results. 
I  think  he  means  whatever  we  can  make  a  success 
of,  though  he  might  mean  class  two;  he  could 
never  mean  class  one,  when  you  and  I  and  all  the 
world  want  that  particular  class,  namely,  pleasure 
and  enjoyment.     Somehow  I  like  him  so  much 
with  all  his  old  referendum  and  recall,  and  wise 
teachings,  that  I  wish  he  had  just  laughed  a  little, 
here  and  there.     No  Brighton  in  Athens. 

34 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          35 

3.  Work  must  be  done  at  the  proper  time.    The 
labor  class  was  against  Capital  then  as  now;  that 
is,  no  one  was  an  enemy  to  Capital  if  they  could 
get  it.     They  were  only  a  positive  and  never  fail- 
ing enemy  to  labor  the  same  as  in  1913  A.  D. 

Business  is  not  disposed  to  wait  until  the  doer  is 
at  leisure,  but  he  must  make  it  his  first  object,  and 
we  are  still  unable,  with  all  our  "boasted  progress, 
to  beat  the  clock,  with  the  exception  of  those 
who  live  on  tick. 

4.  How  invincible  and  unconquerable  is  spirit, 
and  how  the  presence  of  it  makes  the  soul  of 
any  creature  absolutely  fearless  and  indomitable. 
The  spirit  mentioned  here  is  not  the  same  one 
that  thousands  have  their  minds  on  every  night, 
as  glasses  are  tipped. 

5.  The  dog  is  a  true  philosopher  because  he 
distinguishes  a  friend  or  an  enemy  only  by  the 
criterion  of  knowing  and  not  knowing.     Yes,  but 
we  are  not  as  wise  as  dogs.     I  like  to  think  I  am 
liked.     There  is  no  use  in  knowing  what  we  don't 
want  to  know.     I'm  glad  not  to  be  a  dog  in  wis- 
dom. 

6.  True  education  is  gymnastics  for  the  body, 
music  for  the  soul.     Don't  you  think  this  favors 
dancing  where  the  combination  occurs?     I  wish 
we  two  could  extend  our  education  in  that  direc- 


36          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

tion.  We  will  some  day,  because,  since  we  are 
followers  of  Plato,  we  must  favor  what  he  recom- 
mends. 

7.  Homer's  tales  should  not  be  admitted  into 
the  State  because  they  are  lies,  and  must  not  be 
repeated.     You  know  Charles  Lamb  says  in  one 
of  his  essays  that  a  perfectly  truthful  person  is 
uncomfortable  and  ill-mannered,  and  who  was  it 
wrote   "A  woman  can  live  on  lies  so  they  be 
sweet"  ? 

8.  God  is  not  the  author  of  all  things,  but  of 
good  only.     He  did  not  create  evil.     If  this  beau- 
tiful thought  could  have  possessed  all  minds,  how 
much    suffering   might   have   been    averted, — re- 
ligious persecution,  wars,  the  terrible  inquisition. 
Think  of  it !     If  they  could  have  only  been  Plato- 
wise. 

9.  I  agree  in  all  these  principles  and  promise 
to  make  them  my  laws. 


NEW  YORK,  April  27,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

What  is  so  persistently  taking  possession  of 
your  mind  as  to  cause  sudden  and  obdurate  flights 
to  the  wonders  of  an  age  so  far  in  the  distance"? 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  37 

You  must  not  in  the  peaceful  happy  solitude  of 
your  thoughts  allow  yourself  to  pass  from  the 
ordinary  and  comfortable  events  of  the  present 
time  to  the  almost  phenomenal  occurrences  of  the 
past,  except  as  a  recreation.  Do  this  for  pleasure 
alone,  or  not  at  all ! 

Are  you  not  interested  in  the  great  efforts  being 
made  from  time  to  time  in  conquering  the  air  as 
a  means  of  transit? 

I  am  of  the  opinion  that  these  air  birds  will 
successfully  accomplish  their  purpose,  and  when 
that  time  comes  we  will  dwell  upon  the  mountains 
and  our  homes  will  be  in  the  high  places  instead 
of  the  valleys. 

True  it  is  that  heroism  must  be  assigned  the 
daring  men  who  are  performing  the  many  feats 
in  an  unknown  region,  so  often  resulting  in  the 
journey  eternal. 

While  not  detracting  from  the  courage  neces- 
sary to  their  flights,  I  must  mention  that  the  mone- 
tary stakes  awaiting  their  success  is  often  the  ac- 
tual cause  of  this  heroism,  and  without  question 
this  is  the  order  of  our  age,  and  the  spirit  of  so- 
called  progress  that  courses  through  the  veins  of 
progressive  men  is  born  of  the  greed  for  gold. 

Yes,  the  primary  motive  is  this,  and  not  the  inci- 
dental one,  causing  the  incentive  that  spurs  most 


38  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

Americans  to  take  the  perilous  chance  in  all  fields 
of  endeavor. 

Eliminate  the  stakes  and  our  country,  above  all 
nations,  would  tumble  from  her  pedestal,  because 
her  elevation  to-day  has  for  its  foundation  a  rock 
of  gold. 

This  is  not  to  be  criticised,  as  it  stimulates  and 
compels  activity,  thereby  bringing  about  results 
quickly,  that  would  otherwise  lag  behind, — far 
behind. 

We  are  no  longer  waiting  idly  for  our  ship  to 
come  in,  but  are  working  hard  to  build  and  equip 
her,  hardly  giving  time  to  the  promises  of  future 
happiness  that  awaits  completion. 

In  my  few  leisure  hours  I  find  myself  enveloped 
in  thought  of  you,  and  promising  myself  a  future 
of  beautiful  scenes  in  which  you  are  the  central 
figure. 

I  pray  you  not  to  trifle  with  me,  as  you  always 
seem  to  be  doing,  and  to  cease  making  me  a  king's 
fool  for  your  amusement.  The  awakening  would 
be  of  such  severity  as  to  make  my  life  forevermore 
a  discord. 

You  alone  know  the  combination,  and  possess 
the  seals  of  a  heart  full  of  tenderest  love  for 
you.  Good-by.  Yours  lovingly, 

FRED. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  39 

CHICAGO,  April  30,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

Your  premonitions  of  woe  will  take  flight  in 
the  course  of  time  when  you  know  me  better.  I 
am  really  very  warm-hearted,  little  as  you  suspect 
it,  and  not  a  vulture  to  devour  any  susceptible 
young  man  that  comes  my  way. 

Let  these  assurances  have  weight  to  overbalance 
your  distrust  and  cherished  suspicion  of  me,  and 
just  think  all  the  nice  thoughts  you  can  conjure 
in  that  fertile  brain  of  yours,  for  I  like  to  be 
loved,  and  your  confectionery  language  is  as  good 
as  a  box  of  chocolates.  Thanks ! 

I  think  your  very  practical  view  of  the  persist- 
ent efforts  to  travel  in  the  sky  are  perhaps  true, 
and  yet  after  the  hundreds  of  men  who  have 
perished  in  the  struggle  to  conquer  the  ever  oppos- 
ing elements,  it  is  only  just  to  call  them  heroes 
and  to  attribute  their  motives  to  other  desires  than 
those  of  a  mercenary  character.  This  appears 
altogether  too  sordid  an  estimate  of  their  gift  of 
themselves  to  the  service  of  a  great  possible  at- 
tainment. 

In  the  future  time  you  mention,  while  we  are 
living  on  the  top  of  the  highest  mountain  with  our 
books  and  music  to  enthrall  us,  and  the  distant 
scenery  to  enchant  us,  we  will  only  need  to  give 


40          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

our  order  to  the  cooperative  dinner  solicitor,  who 
calls  in  his  airship  and  returns  with  the  viands 
piping  hot  from  the  kitchen  miles  away. 

Let  us  now  get  back  to  our  first  love.  I  am 
sending  you  some  more  of  Plato,  with  side  remarks. 
It  is  not  surprising  he  has  lived  all  these  past 
hundreds  of  years,  and  Book  III,  with  all  its  lofty 
and  beautiful  thoughts,  will  carry  him  forever 
into  the  future. 

It  is  the  most  visionary  and  captivating  mass  of 
words  I  ever  read.  His  ruling  spirit  was  far 
above  the  earth  with  all  its  belittling  influences, 
his  attitude  being  always  toward  moral  and  intel- 
lectual accomplishment. 

When  I  get  to  heaven  the  first  thing  I  shall  do 
will  be  to  find  him  and  ask  to  be  forgiven,  and 
Plato  will  say:  Can  a  being  take  from  the  mind 
the  sunshine  which  is  lurking  there4?  Or  this: 
Should  justice  be  so  severe  as  to  discourage  merri- 
ment? 

In  my  more  lowly  words,  why  should  the  spirit 
of  mirth  ever  be  depressed,  while  the  wine-cup, 
brimming  over  with  the  distilled  joy  of  living,  is 
closely  within  your  reach"? 

Your  talkative  loving  one, 

KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK    III.       THEME THE    BEST 

INTEREST   OF  THE   STATE 

Comments 

The  youth  who  could  stand  the  test  must  have 
been  a  Miracle. 

1.  To  make  fearless  soldiers  a  nice  pleasant 
heaven  or  future  life  should  be  taught  to  young 
men.     This  is  seriously  funny,  and  if  only  our 
present  belief  could  have  been  taught  it  would 
have  made  a  hit,  namely,  beautiful  Angels  with 
golden  wings  and  lovely  voices,  playing  harps. 
With  these  awaiting  them  there  the  soldiers  could 
prepare  the  mind  to  meet  death  gladly.     Can  he 
be  fearless  to  meet  this  change  who  believes  the 
world  below  to  be  real  and  terrible*?     No;  give 
him  a  happy  place  to  pass  into. 

2.  The  unpleasant  references  in  Homer  about 
future  life  must  be  rejected  and  the  lamentations 
made  over  to  women,  and  only  to  those  who  are 
good  for  nothing  and  to  men  of  baser  sort ;  laughter 
must  be  excluded  as  it  reacts  violently  if  indulged 

41 


42  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

in  too  freely.  Nothing  much  would  be  left  of 
Homer  when  sufficiently  rejected,  and  it  is  nice 
to  see  the  women  given  something  to  do  though 
it  is  only  to  shed  the  briny.  Could  they  weep  to 
order?  Yesterday  was  yesterday,  and  to-day  is 
to-day.  At  present  the  rule  is  to  laugh  three 
times  every  day,  and  let  the  eaves-spout  do  the 
weeping. 

3.  Evil    cannot   come   from    the   gods.     This 
projects  so  far  into  the  future  that  we  become 
aware  that  it  was  some  distance  from  one  side  of 
Plato's  head  to  the  other,  and  as  the  Englishman 
said,  "Whatan'ead!" 

4.  One  man  can  succeed  in  doing  only  one 
thing    well.     Generally   speaking,    this    is    true. 
Some  exceptions,  however.     There  is  the  gifted 
Michel  Angelo. 

5.  Grace  and  harmony  are  twin  sisters  of  good- 
ness and  virtue.     The  youths  make  these  their 
perpetual  study,  as  imitation  beginning  in  youth 
becomes  a  habit  and  second  nature.     We  can  per- 
ceive in  this  the  wish  that  life  should  be  organized 
for  the  community,  nobly  idealistic,  more  in  keep- 
ing with  that  time  and  place  than  this  time  and 
any  old  place.     If  this  ideal  state  could  now  be 
possible,  what  a  heavenly  Heaven  we  should  have 
on  Earth. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          43 

6.  Ugliness,  discord  and  inharmonious  motion 
are  nearly  allied  to  ill  words  and  ill  nature.     The 
athlete  would  become  almost  in  nature  a  savage 
if  that  alone  is  pursued,  and  the  musician  is  melted 
and  softened  more  than  he  should  be  if  that  is  his 
entire  attainment,  moderation  being  desired  to  pro- 
duce temperance  in  the  soul  of  the  musician  and 
simplicity  in  gymnastics  of  health  in  the  body. 
We  Americans  also  believe  in  exercise.     Oh,  yes ! 
We  industriously  "fan  ourselves  in  Summer  and 
shiver  in  Winter,"  and  over-production  in  music 
is  not  giving  us  any  anxiety  of  mind ;  occasionally 
we  attain  a  right-wing  swing. 

7.  The  body  can  be  cured  with  the  mind.     You 
see  they  believed  in  Christian  science  under  an- 
other method  of  expressing  themselves.     Nothing 
new  under  the  sun. 

8.  True  love  is  a  love  of  beauty  and  order. 
What   did   this   philosopher   know   about   love? 
How  cold  and  specter-like  seems  philosophy,  as 
compared  with  love's  warm  and  radiant  dream. 
Love  does  not  call  upon  intellect  to  express  a 
meaning  that  it  can  voice  from  the  heart — as  it 
blindly  calls  for  its  mate.     All  true  love  is  blind, 
and  should  be,  and  endures  until  sight  is  restored. 
Then  comes  the  awakening. 

9.  True  education  has  an  influence  to  make 


44          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

them  more  gentle  and  considerate  to  their  equals 
and  to  those  under  their  protection.  This  fact 
seems  to  be  always  true. 

10.  These  youths  for  the  future  rulers  must 
possess  the  divine  metal  unmixed  with  the  dross  of 
common  men.     And  yet,  we  never  think  of  a  man 
as  an  angel.     Try  and  picture  a  man  with  wings. 

1 1 .  The  State  should  care  for  them  and  they 
must  lead  the  simple  life,  honor  in  place  of  money, 
pleasures  denied. 

12.  These  are  the  relations  appointed  for  our 
guardians,  concerning  their  habits  and  other  mat- 
ters. 


NEW  YORK,  May  3,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

How  will  I  attempt  to  describe  the  feeling  of 
joy  that  possessed  me  upon  the  receipt  of  your 
letter*? 

I  find  myself  hopelessly  incapable  of  accom- 
plishing that  end,  and  will  abandon  the  fruitless 
effort. 

It  is  indeed  strange  how  unconsciously  one's 
mind  is  directed  toward  a  dear  friend.  What 
part  mysterious  nature  plays  in  the  life  of  a  man 
no  one  can  tell.  Such  was  the  power  that  on  the 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          45 

very  day  I  received  your  letter  a  premonition 
came  to  me  that  in  some  way  connected  Chicago 
and  myself,  so  evanescent,  that  I  could  not  fathom 
the  cause  of  this  hidden  charm,  which  tried  to  tell 
me  a  surprise  awaited  my  arrival  home,  and  when 
I  found  your  dear  letter  there,  all  was  known. 

Having  read  your  comments,  will  say  I  think 
you  will  be  able  to  cajole  Plato  into  forgiveness 
because  of  the  environment.  You  could  have  no 
hope  on  this  waste  of  Earth,  but  Heaven  is  an- 
other consideration. 

In  your  selections  the  words  "honor  in  place  of 
money"  occur,  and  that  is  the  code  even  in  New 
York,  though  changed  to  "honor  and  money." 

You  know  the  love  of  money  is  strong  because 
if  you  have  enough  it  gives  you  the  opportunity 
to  impress  yourself  upon  your  own  little  world, 
and  there  is  freedom  in  a  bank  account.  It  means 
strength  and  pray  do  not  have  a  temperamental 
distrust  of  the  great  money  kings  here  as  being 
something  dangerous  and  ready  to  destroy.  That 
is  all  a  mistake.  They  move  in  the  line  of  prog- 
ress; they  build  libraries;  they  give  great  sums 
for  educational  purposes  and  medical  research; 
they  are  the  power  behind  the  throne. 

Good-night,  dearest.  My  heart  and  brain  be- 
long to  you.  I  chase  the  dreams  and  phantoms 


46          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

that  pursue  me  by  day,  as  well  as  by  night,  but 
they  hover  over  me  and  will  not  depart. 
Yours  always, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  May  6,  1913. 
Dear  Friend: 

Am  I  to  infer  that  your  Chicago  girl  is  the  cause 
of  those  dreams  and  phantoms  that  must  be  chased 
away1?  My  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  pounds 
avoirdupois  ought  to  make  a  substantial  appari- 
tion and  offer  difficulties  to  the  chase  act.  Why 
make  the  effort*?  Let  those  dreams  hover.  En- 
courage them  not  to  depart. 

While  persuading  myself  that  your  letter  was 
alluring,  and  while  lingering  over  its  contents 
with  the  determined  thought  that  you  were  re- 
sponding with  words  of  murmurous  silence  which 
seemed  to  whisper  to  me  in  the  most  enchanting 
way,  I  suddenly  became  conscious  that  I  was  work- 
ing my  imagination  to  the  limit,  for  all  at  once 
I  could  plainly  see,  in  spite  of  the  aforesaid  per- 
suasion of  my  heart's  desire,  that  your  letter  was 
really  giving  me  a  good  shaking  up  and  you  were 
doing  your  best  to  put  me  right  upon  nearly  every- 
thing I  had  previously  written  you. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  47 

Thanks !  I  will  only  add  that  my  angelic  tem- 
perament enables  me  to  handle  it  with  benevolence 
and  to  assure  you  upon  honor,  fingers  crossed,  that 
any  letter  from  you  is  so  precious  that  I  prize  it 
above  rubies,  no  matter  what  the  contents  are. 

Next  time  you  roast,  however,  please  make  the 
kindling  of  love's  flame,  since  consistency  is  a 
jewel  which  I  am  wearing  for  you  alone. 

And  now  I  gladly  hit  the  trail  to  those  foreign, 
ancient  lands  in  the  journey  which  is  affording 
us  such  delight,  and  before  we  fairly  start  I  want 
to  give  you  a  few  more  plagiarisms  on  Plato,  who 
is  not  at  present  in  a  position  to  defend  himself. 

1.  If  a  man  is  evil  to  himself  to  whom  is  he 
good? 

2.  Seek  a  scene  that  is  fair  and  a  day  that  is 
glorious.     How  then  can  thy  gold  become  dim? 

3.  Be  true  to  some  purpose;  who  then  will  dis- 
cover you  are  a  clam1? 

4.  Would  you  be  a  lover  of  the  public  welfare*? 
Then  bear  on  your  breast  the  cross  of  self-sacrifice. 

— AFTER  PLATO. 

We  will  never  have  the  ideal  government  he 
has  written  about,  but  when  summed  up  our  reach 
should  be  short  of  what  we  would  grasp,  or  noth- 
ing would  be  left  to  strive  for. 


48          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

When  we  lament  that  Hellas  engaged  in  wars 
which  finally  brought  ruin,  it  is  wise  to  remember 
the  Marathon  victory  under  Miltiades  against  the 
Persians,  which  stemmed  the  tide  of  the  barbari- 
ans, and  gave  Europe  the  opportunity  of  gaining 
civilization. 

Had  the  fortunes  of  war  brought  a  different 
end  to  this  decisive  battle,  the  day  of  enlighten- 
ment would  have  been  delayed  indefinitely. 

Good-night!  Our  friendship  has  not  yet  been 
marred  by  mental  agitation,  and  hoping  the  silken 
shackles  that  bind  us  lightly  now  may  never  be 
forged  of  steel  which  will  encompass  us  in  a  cable 
strand  admitting  of  no  untying,  I  am 
Yours  without  counterfeit, 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  May  9,  1913. 
My  Dearest  Kate: 

It  is  only  lately,  in  fact  since  the  arrival  of  your 
letter,  that  I  have  acquired  a  new  mental  phe- 
nomenon and  am  able  to  keep  full  possession  of 
my  thinking  machine  to  the  extermination  of  those 
sweet  dreams  already  mentioned  and  which  you 
advise  retained. 

Not  to  take  the  counsel  of  a  dear  disinterested 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          49 

friend  seems  foolhardy  in  the  extreme,  and  may 
undo  all  your  brave  work  in  that  up-to-date  teach- 
ing which  you  have  undertaken,  but  I  am  taking 
the  risk,  and  thus  far  have  been  successful.  The 
perplexing  portion  being  that  the  mental  deter- 
mination is  at  times  governed  by  the  choice  of  the 
heart. 

One  cannot  always  be  a  winner.  He  or  she 
must  be  guided,  if  not  totally  at  least  in  part,  by 
the  inclination  that  comes  unawares.  There  are 
hundreds  one  may  meet;  and  one  only  of  the  many 
that  torments  and  challenges  and  will  not  be  put 
entirely  aside. 

Anaxagoras  says,  "Reason  rules  the  world," 
and  I  am  trying  vigorously  to  be  his  true  fol- 
lower. 

In  looking  back  to  the  "Heroic  age  of  Greece," 
I  note  with  wonder  and  admiration  the  civiliza- 
tion that  existed  at  that  remote  time.  Consider- 
ing the  lapse  of  years  intervening  from  then  to  the 
present,  we  have  gained  but  little  upon  them, 
only,  you  might  say,  in  certain  inventions  to  save 
time  and  in  bringing  the  world  nearer  together. 

The  progress  we  have  made  in  many  cases  is 
but  a  betterment  along  the  same  line.  Take,  for 
instance,  their  manner  of  living;  after  advancing 
themselves  from  a  state  of  barbarism  when  they 


50          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

lived  in  scattered  villages  like  the  tribes  of  Gaul 
and  Germany  to  their  abode  in  fortified  towers 
which  afforded  them  protection  and  finally  to 
dwell  in  palaces  of  elegance,  glittering  with  gold 
and  silver,  and  adorned  with  fine  specimens  of 
art  that  have  never  been  equaled,  and  an  educa- 
tion in  themselves. 

They  clothed  themselves  in  beautiful  garments, 
the  materials  of  which  were  derived  from  the 
finest  productions,  and  fashioned  artistically. 

The  most  essential  metals  were  in  use  then  as 
now,  and  many  of  them  wrought  in  beautiful 
shapes,  and  fashioned  in  jewelry,  that  has  been 
copied  for  the  goddesses  of  fashion  ever  since  that 
day. 

They  traveled  in  chariots  drawn  by  spirited 
horses,  something  we  have  but  recently  improved 
upon;  they  navigated  the  sea  for  pleasure  by 
easily  propelled  galleys.  Our  motor  replaces  this, 
but  the  rowboat  still  exists;  so,  you  see,  there  is 
little  to  brag  about,  and  we  are  still  following  in 
the  wake  of  Greek  and  Roman  invention. 

And  now,  my  modern  enchantress,  Greek, 
American  or  direct  from  portals  above,  good-night 
to  you. 

Lovingly, 

FRED. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  51 

CHICAGO,  May  12,  1913. 

Dear  Friend: 

Your  tranquil  mind  is  a  source  of  great  gratifi- 
cation to  me,  and  henceforth  I  shall  picture  you 
hourly — day  and  night — going  through  an  inflexi- 
ble course  of  calisthenics  of  the  heart. 

My  defeat  seems  to  be  final;  but  a  battle  is 
never  lost  until  it  is  won;  and  resolutions  are 
often  spasmodically  made  to  be  as  often  broken; 
so  I  am  bolstering  up  my  faltering  courage  with 
the  thought  that  when  the  heart  suggests  phan- 
toms and  dreams,  as  in  your  case,  the  mind  might 
as  well  accept  all  conditions  and  surrender. 

You  will  find  in  this  letter  Book  IV,  and  it  will 
do  you  good  to  read  it  carefully. 

You  say  we  have  not  made  the  progress  that 
should  have  been  made  in  all  these  many  hundred 
years.  That  may  be  true,  but  there  is  one  person 
way  back  there  in  olden  times  that  ought  to  be 
here  right  now.  Poor  Epicuras!  He  certainly 
lived  too  early  on  this  planet.  The  automobile, 
the  airship,  and  other  modern  inventions  would 
have  been  a  great  delight  to  him,  and  how  splen- 
didly he  would  have  written  about  them.  I  wish 
he  could  come  back.  Why  did  not  these  gifted 
people  forestall  our  splendid  achievements'?  You 


52  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

certainly  must  give  this  age  some  credit.  Think 
of  Marconi !  He  would  have  been  made  a  god 
in  ancient  Hellas. 

Do  you  know  we  have  never  mentioned  the 
"Olympic  Games,"  and  they  were  of  such  deep 
interest,  occurring  every  four  years  for  one  thou- 
sand centuries,  and  no  intervention  in  all  that 
period. 

The  opportunity  to  read  or  recite  their  literary 
efforts  must  have  been  a  wonderful  incentive  to 
the  poets,  historians,  and  other  writers. 

And  the  great  athletes  who  were  proclaimed 
victors  became  so  showered  with  honors  that  the 
wonder  is  it  did  not  turn  their  heads. 

The  glory  was  all  their  own  and  seemed  to  raise 
them  to  a  height  not  to  be  reached  by  any  human, 
unless  aided  by  supernatural  powers. 

The  games  that  have  been  established  on  simi- 
lar lines  in  our  time,  and  which  so  closely  corre- 
spond with  those  of  old,  are  receiving  such  wide- 
spread attention  that  the  victors  may  assume  the 
lordship  and  likewise  be  covered  with  the  glory 
that  equipped  those  athletes  they  are  imitating. 

How  absurd  our  boys  of  to-day  would  look 
crowned  with  garlands  and  marching  in  a  proces- 
sion. This  is  where  they  will  ramble  away  from 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  53 

the  past,  and  now  I  will  take  a  rapid  course  away 
from  you  and  thus  hope  to  obtain  your  favor. 
Your  own  loving 

KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK    IV.       THEME TEMPERANCE 

AND  WISDOM 

Comments 

1.  There  seems  to  be  two  causes  for  the  de- 
terioration  of   the   arts.     Wealth   and   poverty. 
Both  are  the  parents  of  discontent.     Any  city  is 
divided  into  two,  one  the  city  of  the  poor,  the 
other  of  the  rich.     These  are  at  war  with  one  an- 
other, then  no  "cuttings"  are  produced,  the  cush 
still  fastens  to  the  damper. 

2.  Education   and  nurture   improve   the  man 
and  effect  the  breed  the  same  as  in  other  animals. 
Keene  has  said  to  the  contrary:     "You  can  im- 
prove the  breed  of  a  horse,  but  not  a  man." 

3.  When  the  modes  of  music  change,  the  fun- 
damental laws  of  the  State  change  with  them. 
The  direction  in  which  education  starts  a  man 
will  determine  his  future  life.     Is  it  possible  our 
bad  laws,  grafting  and  dishonesty,  can  be  due  to 
rag-time'?     Quite  probable. 

4.  In  the  human  soul  there  is  a  better  and  also 
a  worse  principle.     When  the  better  has  control 

54 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  55 

a  man  is  said  to  be  master  of  himself.  The  worse 
having  control,  he  is  blamed  and  unprincipled. 
The  former  are  found  in  the  best  born  and  best 
educated.  Temperance  is  a  sort  of  harmony. 

5.  Wisdom  makes   the  State  wise.     Courage 
makes  it  valiant.     They  each  reside  in  a  part 
only.     Not  so  temperance,   which  runs   through 
all  notes  of  the  scale,  pervading  the  stronger,  the 
middle  and  weaker  classes. 

6.  Glaucon  says:     I  have  just  eyes  enough  to 
see  what  -is  shown ;  that  is  about  as  much  as  I  am 
good  for.     There  are  others.     Many  have  eyes 
that  cannot  see. 

7.  The  soul  of  him  who  desires  is  seeking  after 
the  object  of  his  desire,  or  that  he  is  drawing  to 
himself   the  thing  which  he   wishes   to  possess. 
Likes  or  dislikes  exist  in  many  forms. 

8.  The  forbidding  principle  is  derived  from  rea- 
son,  and  that  which  bids  and  attracts  proceeds 
from  passion  and  disease.     Anger  goes  to  war 
with  desire  as  though  they  were  two  distinct  things. 

9.  Is  passion  different  from  reason,  or  only  a 
kind  of  reason?     Is  not  passion  or  spirit,  when 
not  corrupted  by  bad  education,  the  natural  auxil- 
iary of  reason?     Quotation  from  Homer. 

"  He  smote  his  breast  and  thus  rebuked  his  soul." 


56  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

10.  Then  is  not  virtue  the  health  and  beauty 
and  well  being  of  the  soul,  and  vice  the  disease 
and  weakness  and  deformity  of  the  same*? 


NEW  YORK,  May  16,  1913. 
My  Dear  Friend: 

The  thought  of  you  creates  happiness  which  is 
stimulated  by  the  receipt  of  your  letter. 

What  soothing  ingredients  your  words  contain 
for  a  troubled  and  depressed  mind,  and  I  am  tak- 
ing your  counsel  while  surrendering  to  the  invisi- 
ble power  you  exert  over  me. 

Not  with  humility  and  vexation  am  I  yielding, 
for  I  am  proud  and  happy  in  laying  my  weapons 
of  defense  at  your  feet.  I  would  be  doing  an 
injustice  to  myself  if  I  put  from  me  a  promise 
of  happiness  because  reason  and  obstinacy  bid 
me  fortify  myself  against  the  invasion  of  such 
sweet  content  as  you  bring  into  my  life. 

Circumstances  have  developed  since  last  I  wrote 
to  compel  me  to  work  almost  constantly,  owing  to 
the  burning  of  a  large  structure  here,  which  was 
filled  with  treasure. 

I  saw  the  removal  of  millions  of  wealth  the 
other  day,  and  in  contrasting  this  scene  with  the 
account  of  Julius  Csesar  removing  the  trophies  of 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  57 

Marcius,  I  wondered  if  history  must  forever  and 
ever  repeat  itself. 

I  am  one  of  the  atoms  to  be  disturbed,  and  am 
taxed  with  the  heavy  burden  of  duplicating  pa- 
pers from  the  files,  consequently  am  working  hard 
with  plenty  of  overtime,  and  am  not  in  my  usual 
good  health.  Nothing  serious,  I  trust. 
Your  pliant  and  unresisting  prey, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  May  20,  1913. 
Dearest  Fred: 

Now  I  am  writing  to  give  you  a  good  scold- 
ing. You  must  not  work  so  hard.  I  will  not 
allow  it!  Are  you  not  my  comrade,  and  does 
not  that  give  me  the  right  to  command  you  for 
your  own  good4? 

Yes,  it  does,  and  I  forbid  you  to  risk  your  health 
and  give  extra  time  to  any  old  Company's  mil- 
lions. Are  you  listening,  and  will  you  obey4? 
Do  listen!  and  please  note  my  commands  are 
caresses  in  disguise. 

One  more  command.  Do  not  write  that  west- 
ern correspondent  of  yours  who  is  so  exacting,  and 
expects  so  much  of  you,  a  single  word  about  any 
old  history  or  tiresome  topic  o'f  the  present  day, 


58          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

or   vex  your   tired  mind   with  puzzles;   merely 
write : 

"Dear  Kate: 

"I  am  tired,  and  shall  be  until  this  difficult 
work  is  over.  Send  me  a  long  letter  and  write 
only  that  which  will  relax  your  mind. 

"Yours, 

"Fred:' 

Or  you  might  write — "My  Dearest  Kate: 
(She  liked  that  when  you  wrote  it.)  Please 
write  one  of  your  long  letters  in  answer  to  these 
few  words,  making  it  saucy,  as  usual,  because  I 
need  something  commonplace  to  rest  my  weary 
brain. 

"Yours, 

"Fred. 

"P.  S.  Give  Hellas,  Rome,  China  &  Co.  a 
rest!" 

I  am  quite  certain  you  will  say  of  yourself 
presently  that  you  must  be  in  possession  of  a  stoic 
philosophy  worthy  of  Zeno  himself  and  all  his 
followers  to  work  beyond  your  strength,  as  you 
are  doing. 

When  I  think  of  the  bunch  of  money  that  passes 
through  your  hands  every  thirty  days  for  others 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          59 

I  wonder  it  does  not  go  to  your  head  and  make 
you  woosey. 

I  should  not  like  you  if  you  had  the  money 
making  disease.  All  you  need  is  the  every  day 
necessities  and  a  few  luxuries,  and  you  are  much 
happier  with  just  enough. 

Why  anyone  should  want  more  is  a  mystery, 
when  there  are  so  many  better  things  in  this  lovely 
world  of  ours.  We  need  one  more  command- 
ment.— "Be  serious  only  when  asleep." 

I  have  never  felt  the  least  ambition  to  increase 
the  amount  left  me  by  those  who  have  gone. 
They  provided  for  me,  and  why  should  I  vex  my 
thoughts  with  such  perplexities? 

I  believe  when  the  passion  for  untold  wealth 
gets  hold  of  a  person  it  takes  possession  of  all 
faculties,  and  creates  a  greedy  selfishness  that 
grasps  everything  in  sight,  and  also  that  which  is 
unseen,  no  matter  what  the  cost  to  others  may  be. 

I  repeat,  do  not  work  too  hard  or  you  will  break 
down !  and  those  millions  are  not  worth  it. 

How  thoughtless  I  have  been  never  to  have 
asked  you  about  your  work.  Somehow  I  have 
always  thought  of  you  as  free  from  care,  and  you 
seemed  the  embodiment  of  health  and  happiness. 

My  knowledge  of  you  has  its  limitations.  I 
only  know  you  are  tall  and  good  to  look  at;  that 


60  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

you  like  the  opera;  you  carry  an  umbrella  to  the 
seashore;  you  are  opposed  to  the  Chinese  Repub- 
lic, and  that  you  like  Plato. 

Tell  me  about  yourself.  Are  you  fond  of  out- 
door sports;  are  you  extravagant;  do  you  like  the 
theater;  are  you  a  baseball  enthusiast;  ambitious 
to  travel;  would  you  like  to  go  to  India;  and 
could  you  eat  pie  with  a  spoon,  as  the  English  do; 
are  you  selfish;  are  you  fond  of  writing  letters'? 

Whatever  your  habits,  I  know  my  King  could 
do  no  wrong. 

A  heart  full  of  love, 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  May  25,  1913. 
My  Dearest  Kate: 

The  endearing  term,  which  you  maintain  you 
like,  befits  the  light  in  which  I  hold  you,  and  I 
cannot  allow  you  to  say  you  are  exacting,  even  in 
jest. 

It  seems  impossible  for  me  to  find  an  expres- 
sion in  words  that  will  do  justice  to  my  gratitude 
and  pride  in  the  possession  of  your  letters.  They 
are  a  solace  when  all  else  allows  of  no  comfort. 
Truly  indeed  would  things  look  less  bright  with- 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  61 

out  you  to  think  of,  even  though  it  is  only  in  the 
region  of  thought  I  can  behold  you. 

Your  commands  I  have  been  compelled  to  dis- 
obey, and  am  still  working  hard,  though  I  greatly 
deplore  the  necessity  of  the  strain  upon  my  health. 

This  stress  will  soon  be  over  now,  and  I  would 
not  be  so  unreasonable  as  to  refuse  to  do  this  ex- 
tra work  when  such  occasion  calls  for  it. 

You  know  he  who  does  only  what  he  gets  paid 
for  never  gets  paid  for  any  more  than  he  does. 

You  ask  in  a  previous  topic  why  Greece  and 
Rome,  in' their  golden  age,  did  not  acquire  our  late 
inventions. 

It  is  a  difficult  question  to  answer,  but  I  am  of 
the  impression  that  those  people  could  not  have 
crowded  much  more  into  the  space  of  their  period 
of  achievement,  and  who  knows  but  even  greater 
wonders  than  those  we  have  in  the  present  time 
would  have  sprung  forth  from  them  for  posterity, 
were  it  not  for  the  intervention  of  wars  that 
caused  civil  unrest  and  made  it  necessary  for  them 
to  turn  their  minds  and  means  to  the  support  of 
an  army  for  their  own  salvation"? 

How  can  we  know  of  what  was  latent  in  the 
brain  of  some  of  those  splendid  youths  that  were 
sacrificed  on  the  battlefield*? 

I  can  have  no  suspicion  of  a  doubt  that  their 


62  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

ability  to  fashion  anything  we  have  in  this  age 
could  have  been  accomplished,  had  inclination  di- 
rected them  in  the  lines  we  are  following. 

Are  you  pulling  away  from  our  Plato  tie"? 
Why  are  the  comments  not  coming  my  way*? 

According  to  this  writer,  "Each  planet  has  a 
siren,  who  sings  a  song  harmonizing  with  the  mo- 
tion of  her  own  planet,  and  also  with  all  others." 
Music  of  the  spheres,  and  I  am  in  sympathy  with 
the  very  word  "Music" ;  it  is  my  life. 

In  answer  to  your  various  questions.  I  may 
not  always  be  good,  but  I  will  always  be  your  own. 
I  gratify  nearly  every  wish  I  have,  which  some- 
times calls  for  an  expenditure  that  might  be  con- 
sidered extravagant,  as  compared  to  my  salary. 
I  hate  baseball;  all  outdoor  sports  I  am  enthusi- 
astic over,  with  this  one  exception.  Yes,  I  would 
like  to  travel  the  world  over,  and  even  eat  pie 
with  a  spoon  if  you  would  keep  me  in  fellow- 
ship. 

I  must  leave  you  now,  but  not  in  thought; 
happy  thoughts  that  remain  ever  with  you. 

Thanking  you  for  your  solicitude  and  good 
counsel,  which  I  regret  not  being  able  to  follow, 
I  am 

Your  true  friend, 

FRED. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  63 

CHICAGO,  May  28,  1913. 

Dear  Fred: 

You  have  now  fully  recovered  your  health,  I 
judge,  from  your  flight  back  to  the  land  that 
binds  us,  and  the  tie  you  mention  is  not  loosening, 
for  I  am  now  sending  you  Book  V. 

According  to  your  own  suggestion,  this  is  the 
staff  upon  which  we  lean  and  which  holds  our 
fellowship,  and  I  am  so  honored  by  the  associa- 
tion that  I  do  not  wish  one  of  the  supports  to  be 
incomplete.  I  am  not  needing  the  additional 
prop  of  a  journey  or  a  spoon,  not  even  if  pure 
silver  with  gold  lining  and  warranted  to  last. 

I  wish  I  could  have  been  near  you  during  the 
time  you  were  not  in  your  usual  good  health ;  that 
is,  I  wish  I  had  not  been  a  thousand  miles  away. 

Strange  that  I  did  not  know  by  some  subtle  in- 
stinct you  were  suffering.  I  should  have  come 
to  you  every  day  in  the  shape  of  a  gay  letter  to 
chase  away  that  clinging  indisposition,  and  a  long 
letter  to  help  pass  some  of  those  tedious  hours 
not  devoted  to  business,  in  which  you  could  find 
time  to  be  ill. 

Our  messengers  brought  me  no  tidings,  and 
what  is  one  to  do  in  the  presence  of  incompetent 
heralds,  and  lack  of  premonition*?  I  see  clearly 


64          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

that  the  East  wind  and  the  stars  are  not  to  be  de- 
pended upon,  and  we  must  still  place  confidence 
in  the  usual  carrier. 

In  the  light  of  the  finest  constellation  in  the 
heavens  and  the  gentle  breeze  proving  false,  had 
we  not  better  annex  the  sun  and  the  moon4?  We 
need  all  sources  of  supply. 

You  are  yourself  again,  and  I  will  suggest  that 
we  meet  and  walk  about  beneath  the  trees  and 
porticos  of  the  Lyceum,  Athens,  while  discussing 
these  dialogues  of  Plato,  instead  of  this  coldly 
written  letter.  A  great  deal  of  inspiration  goes 
with  combination. 

We  can  hear  the  rejoicings  and  festivities  of 
the  Bride  and  Bridegroom,  and  listen  closely 
to  the  songs  composed  in  their  honor.  They  are 
offering  themselves  a  sacrifice.  Oh,  no!  I  must 
be  reading  that  incorrectly.  Yes,  of  course,  how 
stupid  I  am.  Paragraph  nine  says,  "There  will 
be  a  sacrifice  offered."  The  meaning  is  quite  dif- 
ferent and  now  clear  to  me.  Is  it  to  you*? 

Two  people  in  love  could  understand,  and  those 
who  are  not  ought  to  be  ignored  as  not  deserving 
to  comprehend  anything  in  the  heaven  above  or 
in  the  earth  beneath. 

No  art  of  man  can  annihilate  or  change  this 
source  of  awakened  knowledge,  and  we  dare  not 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          65 

question  why  it  is  true.     We  only  accept  it  for 
all  the  exalting  glory  it  brings. 

I  am  not  acquainted  with  myself  when  I  ven- 
ture into  these  unknown  regions  of  thought,  and 
I  will  now  accord  with  the  customs  of  the  place 
we  are  in  and  ask  questions. 

Why  is  epic  poetry  not  the  fashion  now"? 
Everything  is  more  interesting  where  there  is  a 
story. 

Why  is  it  not  possible  for  our  artists  to  equal 
or  even  excel  those  of  Hellas  in  works  of  art*? 

Why  does  night  seem  unsullied  by  falsehood"? 

When  darkness  comes  the  clouds  disappear  and 
all  nature  appears  to  be  in  harmony.  I  love  the 
night. 

The  objects  which  are  habitually  before  us  as- 
sume a  repose  seeming  near,  and  we  can  make 
friends  with  the  melancholy  trees  and  flowers  that 
are  sighing  a  little  as  they  are  kissed  with  dew. 

At  this  hour  the  emotions  triumph,  and  all  sen- 
timent would  be  starved  if  it  were  not  for  the 
serenity  that  the  darkness  brings. 

I  will  now  tell  you  emphatically  that  if  you 
were  aware  with  what  impatience  I  await  your 
words  you  will  not  keep  me  in  suspense  long. 
With  all  love  to  you, 

KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK    V.       THEME WOMEN    AND 

CHILDREN 

Comments 

1.  Convention  ought  not  to  stand  in  the  way 
of  higher  good.     This   thought  has  made  such 
havoc  in  the  present  time  that  holding  down  home 
plate  is  a  difficult  play,  and  a  stolen  base  of  fre- 
quent occurrence.     There  is  no  convention  for  the 
day  of  Judgment. 

2.  You  are  quite  right  in  maintaining  the  gen- 
eral inferiority  of  the  female  sex,  and  this,  too, 
prevails  in  the  present  age.     Plato  has  not  the 
monopoly  of  this  Hellenic  thought — no  matter! 
the  fact  remains  that  what  "Woman  wills  God 
wills." 

3.  Should   not   their   custom   be   to   save   the 
Greek  States  from  civil  war,  considering  the  dan- 
ger which  there  is  that  the  whole  race  may  one 
day  fall  under  the  yoke  of  the  Barbarians'?     This 
wise  man  penetrated  the  future,  as  that  was  actu- 
ally what  wrecked  their  glorious  Country.     Those 

men  of  Greece  became  so  intellectually  beany, 

66 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  67 

they  looked  far  down  on  the  hordes  that  finally 
conquered  them.  Sad  for  all  time  was  the  day 
when  "Greece  her  knee  in  suppliance  bent,"  and 
it  is  difficult  to  picture  one  of  those  old  Stoics 
on  bended  knee,  although  they  could  bend  because 
all  their  muscles  worked  well  except  those  of  the 
heart.  This  also  might  apply  to  many  men  of 
the  present  day,  especially  the  Englishmen. 

4.  There  is  a  difference  in  the  names  Discord 
and  War.     One  expresses  internal  or  domestic, 
and  the  other  external  or  foreign,  troubles.     If 
only   we  -  had   no   such   words   as   discord,    war, 
destruction    and    humiliation,    then    the    whole 
world  would  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  vision  beau- 
tiful. 

5.  Are  the  ideals  fully  realized  in  language? 
Does  not  the  word  express  more  than  the  fact,  and 
must  not  the  actual  fall  far  short  of  the  truth1? 
Yes,  words  fail  to  express  ideals  or  sensations. 
No  combination  of  mere  words  can  tell  the  loud 
silence  of  the  sea ;  the  magic  of  the  morning  when 
the  sun  is  rising;  the  triumph  of  a  great  storm 
that  has  the  power  to  subdue  fear,   and  what 
words  can  tell  of  love,  "The  light  that  never  was 
on  land  or  sea." 

6.  Until  political  greatness  and  wisdom  meet 
in  one,  Cities  will  never  have  rest  from  their  evils. 


68          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

No,  nor  the  human  race.  Is  it  not  really  ridicu- 
lous we  cannot  be  good  and  send  this  bugbear 
evil  to  the  most  distant  place  on  the  earth?  In 
fact,  we  have  sent  a  large  portion  to  India,  and 
it  is  quite  sure  to  remain  there.  English,  you 
know. 

7.  True  philosophers  are  those  who  are  the  lov- 
ers of  the  vision  of  truth.     Those  who  love  the 
truth  in  each  thing  are  to  be  called  lovers  of  wis- 
dom, and  not  lovers  of  opinion.     Assuredly !     No 
dispute  on  this  score — and  yet  how  easy  to  be 
unwise  and  tell  a  lie,  and  then  we  would  gladly 
bring  back  our  words  at  cable  rates,  especially 
now  they  have  been  reduced  one-half. 

8.  Women  are  to  have  the  same  duties  as  men. 
They  must  have  the  same  education  even  in  music, 
gymnastics  and  war. 

9.  Had  we  not  better  appoint  certain  festivals 
at  which  the  bride  and  bridegroom  will  meet  and 
there  will  be  sacrifice  offered,  suitable  hymeneal 
songs  composed  by  our  poets'?     The  children  of 
these  unions  shall  in  this  way  be  proper,  and  be- 
come the  care  of  the  State,  but  the  offspring  not 
having  the  blessings  of  sacrifice  and  prayer  shall 
be  in  darkness. 

10.  The  law  says  when  a  man  is  acquitted  he 
is  free  from  guilt. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  69 

NEW  YORK,  June  2,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

Your  description  of  the  happiness  you  find  in 
the  night  is  quite  in  accord  with  the  experience 
of  many  millions  of  human  beings. 

In  the  solitude  of  the  dark  hours  when  all  the 
hum  of  the  busy  day  is  gone,  one's  reflections  be- 
come fanciful,  and  the  beauties  of  the  night  make 
an  impression  that  the  same  scene  by  day  could 
not  excite.  Homer  says: 

"Now  Juno,  large-eyed  and  august,  bade  set 
The  never   wearied  sun;   unwillingly 
He  sank  into  the  ocean  stream." 

I,  too,  find  myself  building  air  castles  during 
such  hours  of  the  night  in  which  you  are  the  prin- 
cess and  I  the  prince,  and  I  yield  to  perfect  con- 
tentment, for  you  are  bringing  a  joy  into  my  life 
which  has  heretofore  been  filled  only  with  practi- 
cal everyday  thoughts,  and  hard  work. 

I  have  a  disinclination  to  write  of  myself  fur- 
ther. In  fact,  I  dare  not!  Your  lessons  are  be- 
ing well  learned,  and  I  would  prefer  a  regular 
exercise  of  your  approbation  than  the  four  vol- 
umes of  disapproval  which  I  know  would  follow 
were  I  to  continue. 

How  is  it  that  in  all  this  time  we  have  scarcely 


70          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

mentioned  Homer  ^  Three  thousand  years  since 
this  celebrated  poet  lived,  and  his  works  are  cele- 
brated to-day,  as  of  yore ;  never  on  the  decrease. 

The  modern  world  competes  with  and,  if  possi- 
ble, even  exceeds  in  competition  with  the  ancient 
world  in  doing  him  honor,  for  you  remember 
Plato  advised  an  elimination  of  certain  portions 
of  his  work,  and  there  is  no  possible  omission  to- 
day. All  is  unconditionally  accepted. 

Painting  and  sculpture  owe  to  Homer  their 
models  in  the  heroes  of  his  "Iliad,"  and  poetry 
has  been  molded  by  his  master  mind.  Seven 
cities  claimed  the  honor  of  having  given  him  birth, 
and  the  literature  of  all  nations  has  been  influ- 
enced by  his  writings. 

The  life  of  Homer  is  almost  unknown.  The 
story  of  his  wandering  from  place  to  place,  singing 
his  poems,  has  been  argued  against  and  reasoned 
away  by  some  writers,  the  claim  being  advanced 
that  the  beautiful  language  could  not  have  been 
handed  down  from  mouth  to  mouth  one  genera- 
tion after  another. 

The  claim  that  he  was  blind  is  also  doubtful, 
as  his  descriptions  of  scenes  could  only  have  been 
made  by  one  who  is  able  to  see  the  beauties  of 
Nature.  Note  his  many  fine  word  descriptions 
of  the  Aurora,  the  rising  light  of  the  morning. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  71 

"Now  Dawn,  the  goddess,  climbed  the  Olympian  height 
Foretelling  day  to  Jupiter  and  all 
The  immortal  gods." 

"Now  when  the  early   rosy-fingered  Dawn 
Looked  forth,  the  people  gathered  round  the  pile 
Of  glorious  Hector." 

With  a  heart  full  of  the  deepest  love  for  you, 
and  awaiting  your  response  with  joy,  I  am 

Truly  thine  own 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  June  8,  1913. 
Dear  Fred: 

And  I  am  responding  with  joy,  for  your  treas- 
ured letter  has  supported  me  during  the  last  few 
days,  that  is,  mentally.  Surely  you  are  not  so 
far  away  as  we  think,  for  you  are  vivid  to  me 
this  moment,  and  I  am  saying  to  myself,  this  is 
not  Sixty-fourth  Street,  it  is  "Fortune  Boule- 
vard," and  the  Elysian  fields  are  all  about  us. 

We  are  finding  it  difficult  to  discuss  a  day  gone 
by,  or  several  of  them,  because  we  just  want  to 
hold  hands  and  look  in  each  other's  eyes,  so  I 
must  hurry  up  and  tell  you  I  am  sending  a  waver- 
ing prop  in  Plato's  Book  VI,  and  I  wish  Glaucon 
would  not  ask  so  many,  many  questions.  I  am 


72  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

forming  the  habit,  and  if  I  have  not  been  to  the 
game,  and  meet  anyone  I  know  I  at  once  begin 
saying:  Who  won*?  What's  the  score?  Who 
pitched*?  Did  the  fans  keep  up  their  marvelous 
yelling  endurance1?  Did  the  players  ignore,  as 
usual,  the  valuable  suggestions  of  the  crowd? 
And  all  my  questions  are  answered  the  same  as 
Glaucon's,  by  persons  much  wiser  than  Socrates 
could  possibly  be,  especially  in  this  particular  line. 

In  writing  about  encounters,  I  am  reminded  of 
an  article  I  read  the  other  day  about  the  fighting 
that  is  taking  place  between  Turkey  and  one  coun- 
try after  another  over  there. 

The  statement  was  made  that  the  real  cause 
of  the  wars  seemed  to  be  the  same  old  strife  be- 
tween Christian  and  Moslem,  and  when  reading 
this,  in  spite  of  the  atrocities  and  horror  of  it  all, 
I  could  not  help  laughing  at  the  awfully  funny 
idea  of  going  in  our  times  on  a  missionary  errand, 
with  a  gun  in  one  hand  and  a  sword  in  the  other; 
a  third  hand  ought  to  have  been  supplied  for 
carrying  the  Bible. 

We  have  had  so  many  of  these  religious  wars 
in  the  past.  Will  the  Peace  Commission  stop  this 
rage  and  bitterness? 

I  have  not  yet  thanked  you  for  the  beautiful 
cards  you  sent  me.  I  do  thank  you !  and  I  study 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  73 

them.  Is  it  for  the  sake  of  making  you  seem 
real  and  not  far  away  that  I  do  so,  or  because  of 
the  lovely  hand  work  you  have  placed  upon 
them1?  Both  motives  claim  recognition,  because 
I  like  to  think  you  are  close  to  me,  and  the  artistic 
work  excites  my  ardent  attention  and  admiration. 

You  are  certainly  employing  your  stray  mo- 
ments of  leisure  to  great  advantage.  An  Italian, 
and  this  is  an  inherited  gift  from  some  distant 
ancestor  named  Perugino  or  Tintoretto"? 

You  do  not  know  all  the  nice  things  I  am  think- 
ing about  you,  and  I  will  not  tell.  Why  should 
you  not  give  your  fancy  a  loose  rein  and  find  them 
yourself?  Laughingly  yours, 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  June  14,  1913. 
Dear  Kate: 

Your  flippant  letter  is  here,  and  it  inclines  me 
to  the  belief  that  the  trouble  with  most  girls  is 
the  destitution  of  real  sound  stuffing  in  that  re- 
gion where  the  brain  is  supposed  to  be  located. 

Did  you  succeed  in  getting  all  your  questions 
about  the  baseball  game  answered  that  day? 
And  by  what  terrible  mischance  were  you  absent 
from  the  game? 


74          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

The  struggle  between  one  team  and  another  is 
a  tearing  whirlwind,  man-grabbing  fuss,  and  the 
uncomfortable  spectators  who  are  misnamed 
"fans"  are  really  maniacs  assisted  by  nine  men 
in  uniform,  their  only  merit  being  the  fact  of 
having  enriched  the  American  vocabulary  (*?). 

You  are  a  genius  in  one  direction  and  have  the 
proper  equipment  for  destroying  a  man's  ideals. 
I  have  known  you  liked  the  game,  but  I  could  not 
know  you  were  so  enthusiastic  in  your  choice  of 
amusements  as  you  seem  to  be. 

I  deeply  regret  the  fact  of  your  being  so  inter- 
ested as  to  attend  the  games  and  wish  you  would 
discontinue. 

If  my  request  seems  an  impertinence,  and  a 
presumption  upon  our  slight  acquaintance,  I  re- 
call it,  and  will  endeavor  to  avoid  pitfalls  of  this 
nature  in  the  future. 

Yours  commandingly, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  June  19,  1913. 
Dear  Fred: 

There  is  no  strategy  in  a  stroke  of  lightning, 
but  I  am  well  protected,  so  it  matters  not 
how  hard  I  am  hit.  Your  judgment,  O  Worthy 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          75 

Judge,  though  so  very  smoothly  and  artfully  ex- 
pressed, has  given  me  a  chill,  from  which  I  shall 
not  soon  be  able  to  recover,  and  I  am  wondering 
if  you  are  the  spirit  of  assurance  incarnated  in 
human  form,  and  sent  to  me  for  the  purpose  of 
making  a  home-run  on  the  lecture  course. 

In  your  frame  of  mind  no  argument  will  be 
convincing,  and  I  will  not  defend  the  baseball 
game,  but  simply  confess  that  the  trouble  with 
me  is,  I  cannot  be  both  happy  and  wise  at  the 
same  time,  and,  therefore,  will  continue  to  attend 
the  great  American  Game  because  I  find  pleasure 
there,  and  consider  happiness  to  be  more  desirable 
than  wisdom. 

Your  letter  plainly  shows  your  apparently  nat- 
ural characteristics  are  prompting  you  to  such  an 
extent  that  you  are  eager  for  a  fight,  and  you  have 
chosen  an  unworthy  antagonist. 

Good-by,  my  unsympathetic  comrade. 

Yours  guardedly, 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  June  23,  1913. 
Dear  Kate: 

You  certainly  understand  the  fall-away  slide, 
and  as  I  want  to  be  a  top-notcher  with  you,  I  shall 


76          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

get  some  speed,  and  hasten  right  back  to  express 
myself  in  the  language  you  will  understand. 

I  think  Ancient  history  is  a  safer  ground  for 
us  than  the  diamond.  Your  disdain  of  my  re- 
quest I  undoubtedly  merit,  but  you  know  it  is 
not  absolute  justice  I  am  seeking  from  you,  it  is 
the  quality  of  mercy  I  implore. 

"We  buy  at  a  price  the  fool  can't  count, 
And  the  coward's  afraid  to  pay, 
The  most  we  gain  is  the  blind  black  pain, 
Yet  we  keep  right  on  in  the  fray." 

While  the  war  cloud  is  hovering  over  us  and 
we  are  trying  the  hazardous  and  disenchanting 
game  of  a  word  contest,  allow  me  to  suggest  that 
you  may  underrate  your  foe,  as  my  nerve  is  steady, 
and  I  am  practicing  repression. 

Yours  indifferently, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  June  27,  1913. 
My  Dear  Frederick: 

Do  not  injure  your  steady  nerve  by  beating 
against  your  cage.  My  poor  bear!  I  will  feed 
you  sugar  so  you  won't  bite  any  more.  There! 
be  good!  and  let  your  forgiveness  shine  forth  in 
its  brightest  radiance,  that  the  darkness  encircling 
me  through  your  disapproval  may  disappear. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  77 

I  will  make  a  great  effort  to  understand  you 
in  your  own  language,  that  you  may  not  punish 
yourself  with  anything  so  foreign  to  you  as  base- 
ball slang. 

While  raising  the  white  flag  and  suing  for 
peace  I  am  sadly  neglecting  all  those  old  wars, 
which,  as  you  say,  prove  to  be  a  safe  path  for 
you  and  me. 

The  real  battles  that  we  know  have  taken  place 
are  not  half  so  interesting  as  that  imaginary  one 
of  Troy,  and  the  story  of  Helen  in  the  Iliad  never 
grows  old. 

The  mingling  of  gods  and  men  in  directing  the 
encounters  between  the  Trojan  and  Greek  armies 
indicates  how  closely  men  encouraged  the  support 
of  their  gods,  believing  in  their  assistance  and 
never  doubting  the  blessings  they  would  bring. 

I  am  sending  you  Book  VI  as  a  peace  offering, 
for  you  can  bear  no  malice  nor  unkind  thoughts 
while  reading  Plato.  Not  you !  Not  I ! 

I  hope  this  will  reach  you  while  you  are  in  a 
loving  and  forgiving  mood  and  before  you  have 
accumulated  a  few  tons  of  ''repression"  to  practice 
on  me. 

Your  loving,  unsuppressed 

KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK   VI.       THEME UNITY   OF    STATE 

No  Comments 

1.  Is  there  anything  more  akin  to  wisdom  than 
truth? 

2.  Evil  is  a  greater  enemy  to  what  is  good  than 
to  what  is  not.     The  finest  natures  when  under 
alien  conditions  receive  more  injury  than  the  in- 
ferior, because  the  contrast  is  greater. 

3.  Great  natures  only  will   accomplish  great 
things,    either    in    the    individual    or    the    state 
for  good,  or  for  evil. 

4.  All  great  attempts  are  attended  with  risk. 

5.  As  life  advances  let  them  increase  the  gym- 
nastics of  the  soul. 

6.  Can  a  man  help  imitating  that  which  he 
holds  reverential*? 

7.  Glaucon  urges  Socrates  to  give  an  explana- 
tion of  the  good  as  he  already  had  given  of  justice, 
temperance,  and  the  other  virtues. 

8.  Socrates  answers:     The  good  is  the  author 

78 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  79 

of  all  knowledge  to  all  things  known,  and  far  ex- 
ceeds essence  in  dignity  and  power. 

9.  Glaucon  said,  with  a  ludicrous  earnestness, 
By  the  light  of  heaven,  how  amazing! 

10.  The  ear  and  voice  need  no  addition  to  ful- 
fill their  requirements,  and  also  the  other  senses, 
except  the  eye.     Sight  depends  upon  light,   for 
light  is  a  bond  and  no  ignoble  thing.     The  eye 
is  more  like  the  sun,  and  the  sun  is  the  author  of 
sight,  and  in  the  relation  to  sight  what  the  good 
is  in  the  intellectual  world  in  relation  to  mind, 
and  the  things  of  the  mind.     The  eyes  see  but 
dimly,  and  are  nearly  blind  when  looking  upon 
objects,  by  the  light  of  the  moon  and  stars  only, 
and  the  soul  is  like  the  eye  when  resting  upon 
that  on  which  truth  and  being  shine;  the  soul 
perceives  and  understands  and  is  radiant  with  in- 
telligence, but  when  turned  toward  the  twilight 
of  evil  she  seems  to  have  no  intelligence. 

1 1 .  Good  is  higher  than  science.     It  is  the  won- 
der of  beauty,  the  author  of  science  and  truth,  and 
yet  surpasses  them.     Is  pleasure  the  good4? 

12.  A  clearer  notion  of  arts  and  of  good  can  be 
contemplated  by  the  understanding  than  by  the 
senses.     Let  there  be  four  faculties  in  the  soul. 
Reason  first,   the  highest  understanding  second, 
faith    or    conviction    third,    perception    fourth. 


8o          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

These  faculties  have  clearness  in  the  same  degree 
that  their  objects  have  truth. 


NEW  YORK,  July  i,  1913. 
My  Dearest  Kate: 

To  gratify  your  desires  is  a  task  I  fully  enjoy, 
and  I  am  ever  ready  to  exert  myself  to  the  best 
of  my  ability  in  accomplishing  whatever  you  ask. 

I  own  to  selfishness  in  wishing  you  to  seek  other 
amusements  than  those  you  most  enjoy,  and  I 
must  plead  that  love  for  you  alone  robbed  me  of 
deliberation  of  thought,  or  a  sense  of  justice. 
This  alone  is  responsible  for  my  hasty  words, 
and  you  know  the  more  you  love  a  person  the  more 
furious  with  rage  you  can  become,  if  something 
meets  with  your  disapproval. 

Now  that  our  heart-beats  keep  pace  with  each 
hour  of  the  day  and  all  the  threatening  clouds  have 
vanished,  we  can  again  become  interested  in  those 
subjects  which  our  present  cessation  of  hostilities 
will  enable  us  to  traverse  smoothly. 

Do  not  forget  that  you  are  my  haven,  and  I 
am  like  a  distressed  ship  seeking  a  safe  harbor 
from  the  storm.  Our  love  barque,  which  has 
lately  been  so  threatened,  is  safely  in  port  and  all 
is  forgiven. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  81 

This  gives  me  resolution  to  dispel  the  visita- 
tion of  dejection  and  melancholy  which  have  been 
taking  possession  of  me. 

I  endeavored  to  conjure  from  some  source  a 
solace,  and  I  thought  of  how  the  never-at-fault 
ingenuity  of  the  Greeks  assigned  to  each  one  of 
the  Muses  a  certain  portion  of  human  intelligence 
for  her  special  care,  and  I  wish  that  we,  in  like 
manner,  had  a  guardian  to  superintend  and  keep 
in  curb  our  hasty  tempers. 

Though  we  weary  ourselves  in  searching  for 
the  good"  and  the  beautiful,  we  must  search  in 
vain,  unless  we  find  them  in  our  own  character. 

You  were  sent  to  me  as  an  emissary  to  direct 
and  lead  me,  and  may  your  mission  be  not  in 
vain.  Good-by,  dear  love. 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  July  5,   1913. 
Dear  Fred: 

By  means  of  the  very  lucid  explanation  which 
you  offer,  I  plainly  see  that  the  word  "Love"  is 
obliged  to  carry  a  heavy  load  of  responsibility, 
and  how  nice  it  is  to  have  something  to  shoulder 
our  faults  and  mistakes  upon. 

And  yet  we  are  not  automatons  endowed  with 


82  PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

no  power  to  govern  our  thoughts  and  actions,  and 
can  it  be  we  are  controlled  entirely  by  sentiments 
of  love  or  hate? 

Make  yourself  easy,  dear  sir,  I  am  not  intend- 
ing really  to  question  your  statement,  but  to 
recede  quietly  several  thousand  years  and  wander 
to  that  land  of  mystery,  Egypt. 

This  was  such  an  early  locality  in  the  world, 
before  other  countries  had  identified  themselves, 
that  we  are  fortunate  in  knowing  as  much  about 
this  interesting  race  of  people  as  we  do. 

They  were  ambitious,  clever,  and  great  artisans. 
The  grandeur  of  their  architecture  still  remains 
unrivaled  and  probably  will  challenge  with  its 
impressiveness  the  ages  to  come. 

The  massive  tombs  inspire  the  wonder  of  all 
who  see  them,  and  "Breathes  there"  a  tourist 
"with  soul  so  dead"  as  not  to  have  had  a  kodak 
picture  of  himself  or  herself  (especially  herself), 
with  the  Sphinx  in  the  distance? 

Those  men  of  immense  fortunes,  whom  you 
mentioned  in  one  of  your  letters,  are  so  busy  in 
their  various  pursuits  for  the  elevation  of  man- 
kind and  for  the  progress  of  the  multitude  that 
they  have  no  time  to  build  thirteen  acre  tombs, 
even  if  the  inclination  beckoned  them,  and  it  does 
not  seem  essential  for  them  to  do  so,  since  they 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  83 

will  live  forever  in  the  minds  of  those  receiving 
the  benefit  of  their  good  deeds,  so  much  better 
than  a  block  of  stone. 

I  do  not  believe  the  pyramids  will  be  dupli- 
cated right  away.  We  have  too  many  enticing 
uses  for  our  money  at  this  date  to  reach  so  high 
in  the  air  for  the  sake  of  being  remembered. 

I  will  begin  with  the  illustrious  Rameses  the 
Third,  who,  knowing  it  was  the  main  duty  of  a 
king  at  the  period  in  which  he  lived  to  prepare  a 
tomb  for  himself,  was  not  slow  to  begin  and  con- 
tinued along  that  line  during  the  thirty-one  years 
of  his  reign. 

He  was  the  most  renowned  monarch  of  Egypt, 
and  he  had  the  first  fad  for  conquering  the  world, 
and  set  the  example  for  others. 

There  were  many  followers  in  this  deeply  cut 
groove,  the  most  celebrated  being  a  Roman,  who 
redeemed  himself  by  becoming  a  rattling  good 
talker,  a  great  statesman,  and  a  writer  of  perfect 
Latin,  which  students  of  to-day  are  intent  upon. 
You  know  Heine  says,  "No  wonder  Julius  Csesar 
had  time  to  conquer  the  world,  he  did  not  have 
to  learn  Latin." 

To  get  back  to  Rameses,  he  was  effectual  in 
stopping  the  tide  of  the  Barbarians,  and  treated 
them  with  great  cruelty.  Vengeance  had  full 


84          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

course,  and  the  suffering  of  the  conquered  is  a  tale 
untold  and  impossible  of  telling. 

He  said,  "The  invaders  of  my  territory  will 
gather  no  more  harvests  upon  the  earth,  their  life  is 
counted  to  them  as  eternity." 

He  vanquished  so  many  enemies  that  he  finally 
seemed  tired  of  slaughter  and  turned  his  attention 
to  building,  commerce,  and  planting  of  trees,  to 
give  his  people  the  comfort  of  shade  from  the  hot 
rays  of  the  sun. 

His  last  years  proved  to  be  tranquil.  He  lived 
in  luxury  and  was  so  alert  that  he  could  detect 
those  aspiring  against  him  and  exterminate  them 
without  any  expressed  wish  of  theirs  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  this  should  be  done. 

I  will  write  some  more  about  this  much  written 
of  country  in  my  next,  if  England  has  not  by  that 
time  appropriated  it,  and  if  its  glory  has  not  been 
dimmed  by  the  possession  of  this  supposed-to-be 
civilized  barbarian. 

Herein  you  will  find  Book  VII,  which  I  con- 
sign to  your  care  with  the  desire  that  Plato's  words 
will  influence  you  for  good. 

Yours  lovingly, 

KATE. 

P.  S.  "Trifles  make  perfection,  but  perfection 
is  no  trifle." — Michael  Angela. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK     VII.        THEME INTELLIGENCE 

HAS   A   DIVINE    LIFE 

1.  Pure  intelligence  is  necessary  in  the  attain- 
ment of  pure  truth. 

2.  I  conceive  that  as  the  eyes  are  appointed  to 
look  up  to  the  stars,  so  are  the  ears  to  hear  har- 
monious motions. 

3.  The  eye  of  the  soul,  which  is  literally  buried 
in  some  outlandish  slough,  is  taught  to  look  up- 
wards, and  she  uses  as  handmaid  the  sciences. 

4.  Use  such  gifts  as  keenness  and  ready  powers 
of  acquisition;  for  the  mind  often  faints  from 
the  severity  of  study;  the  toil  is  more  entirely  the 
mind's  own,   and  is  not  shared  with  the  body. 
Youth  is  the  time  of  toil. 

5.  Study  should  never  be  forced,  bodily  exer- 
cise, when  compulsory,  does  no  harm  to  the  body, 
but  knowledge  which  is  acquired  under  compul- 
sion obtains  no  hold  on  the  mind. 

6.  The  comprehensive  mind  is  always  the  dia- 
lectical. 

8s 


86          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

7.  When  a  man  with  a  questioning  spirit  asks 
what  is  fair  and  honorable,  he  begins  to  cease  to 
respect  them,   and  will  he  not  pursue  any  life 
which  flatters  his  desires'?     And  from  being  a 
keeper  of  the  law,  will  he  not  be  converted  into 
a  breaker  of  it? 

8.  Glaucon  says:     You  are  a  sculptor,  Socra- 
tes, and  have  made  statues  of  our  governors,  fault- 
less in  beauty. 

9.  Yes,  Glaucon,  and  of  our  governesses,  too; 
for  you  must  not  suppose  that  what  I  have  been 
saying  applies  to  men  only,  and  not  to  women, 
as  far  as  their  natures  can  go. 

10.  Do  not  use  compulsion,  but  let  education 
be  a  sort  of  amusement,  and  he  who  appears  to 
be  most  ready,  to  be  enrolled  in  a  select  number. 

11.  There  is  no  difficulty  and,  I  say  with  you, 

enough. 

i 

NEW  YORK,  July  8,   1913. 
My  Dear  Friend: 

Your  kind  consideration  in  accepting  my  de- 
fense, though  you  found  it  inadequate,  has  quite 
touched  that  organ  supposed  to  be  the  seat  of  all 
sentiment,  and  I  again  find  myself  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  Sprite  who  has  wielded  the  magic 
wand,  in  so  lasting  and  impressive  a  manner  as 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  87 

to  hold  sway  over  me  during  this  hour  of  sixty 
minutes,  or,  will  I  say,  fifty-nine  and  a  half? 

I  will  now  follow  the  way  of  wisdom,  and  join 
you  in  Egypt.  The  monarch  you  mention  was 
illustrious,  but  Seti  the  First  must  not  be  over- 
shadowed. The  building  of  Karnak,  the  archi- 
tectural wonder  of  the  world,  ought  to  place  his 
name  high  on  the  list  of  fame. 

Some  day  I  intend  to  travel  there  and  see  the 
rock-tombs  which  are  described  as  such  splendid 
palaces,  hewn  out  of  the  rock.  I  also  want  to 
see  what  is  left  of  those  colossal  statues  of  Ram- 
eses  the  Second,  and  try  to  imagine  the  original 
four  as  they  existed.  Those  stone  monuments, 
seventy  feet  high,  the  features  of  which  were  en- 
larged ten  times  the  natural  size,  with  an  expres- 
sion of  lasting  repose,  as  befitted  the  location  of 
long  reaches  of  sand. 

Is  it  true  that  the  desert  impresses  you  the  same 
as  the  ocean?  You,  that  have  been  there  and  have 
seen  all  this  that  I  long  to  see  can  tell  me  if  the 
majesty  of  the  sea  is  repeated  in  the  formidable 
extent  of  sand  reaching  to  the  horizon  line. 

It  is  not  surprising  so  many  people  journey  to 
Egypt,  because  the  valley  of  the  Nile  is  the  re- 
gion that  introduces  every  variety  of  entertain- 
ment. 


88          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

I  will  now  conclude,  wishing  you  a  fond  good- 
night, and  assuring  you  of  my  content  in  being 
an.  Italian,  instead  of  an  Englishman,  since  I 
would  have  no  chance  of  your  favor  had  I  the 
misfortune  to  have  been  manufactured  from  the 
dust  of  the  British  Isles. 

Yours  resignedly, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  July  12,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

From  present  appearances,  I  faintly  perceive  a 
hesitancy  in  our  acrobatic  word  vaulting,  and 
when  I  learned  you  had  given  me  a  full  hour  of 
your  time,  with  a  possible  loss  of  only  one  half 
minute,  I  was  so  distressed  over  the  terrible  waste 
of  so  much  precious  time  that  I  at  once  made  an 
effort  to  distract  my  mind,  and  focus  it  hard  on 
something  big,  as  mental  Scientists  tell  us  to  do. 

This  I  succeeded  in  doing,  and  concentrated  all 
thought  on  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 

Though  I  speak  with  the  tongue  of  men,  and 
of  angels,  and  have  no  sense  of  humor,  I  am  be- 
come as  sounding  brass,  or  a  tinkling  cymbal. 

I  am  not  intending  to  squander  an  hour  on  you, 
mv  extravagant  friend,  but  will  continue  my 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          89 

story  of  Egypt,  as  that  is  time  well  spent.  Do 
you  not  think  so?  We  are  greatly  indebted  to 
Rameses  the  Third  for  his  many  sculptured  vic- 
tories in  battle,  which  are  a  history  in  themselves. 

He  pictured  in  stone  the  first  representation  of 
a  sea  fight  that  is  known. 

He  built  the  great  temple  of  Ammon  at  Medi- 
net  Abou,  not  far  from  Thebes,  and  here  may  be 
found  in  sculpture  the  story  of  his  achievements 
against  the  hosts  which  he  fought  and  overcame. 

One  of  his  monoliths  is  in  the  Place  de  la  Con- 
corde, Paris,  and  how  enraptured  this  vain  mon- 
arch would  be  could  he  see  it  there. 

In  fact,  he  was  like  a  schoolboy  writing  his 
name  everywhere,  he  so  enjoyed  having  everything 
emblazoned. 

He  was  often  cruel,  for  that  was  the  order  of 
the  day,  but  he  must  have  had  a  tender  spot  some- 
where in  his  anatomy,  or  he  would  not  have 
planted  those  trees,  you  know. 

He  died  B.  c.  1280,  and  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  his  descendants  occupied  the  throne  he 
left  vacant. 

There  were  healthier  occupations  than  being 
monarch  of  Egypt,  previously  and  afterwards. 
Just  as  a  few  hundred  years  later  was  shown  in 
Rome,  when  it  certainly  took  a  man  of  courage 


90          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

and  one  fearless  of  a  tragic  death,  to  occupy  the 
position  of  Emperor. 

"Tyrants,"  said  Plato,  "stand  in  awe  of 
friends." 

And  we  have  a  later  saying  with  much  the  same 
meaning:  "God  protect  us  from  our  friends, 
we  can  take  care  of  our  enemies  ourselves." 

Yours  for  three  thousand  years  and  then  some. 
With  a  mind  full  of  thought  and  a  pyramid  of 
love  for  you,  I  am 

Your  own 
KATE. 

P.  S.  Of  course  I  mean  the  small  pyramid, 
only  five  acres. 


NEW  YORK,  July  15,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

Like  Rameses  the  Third,  I  am  weary  of  con- 
test, and  will  employ  my  time  of  peace  in  planting 
flowers  of  love  in  your  mind.  And  the  very  sun 
itself  will  shine  out  with  more  splendor  to  nourish 
and  make  beautiful  the  white  rose  and  the  crim- 
son, as  they  tell  me  the  sweet  old  story  in  fra- 
grance breathing  of  love. 

I  am  often  oppressed  with  the  fear  that  the 
dear  one  who  appears  constantly  before  me,  and 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          91 

who  eludes  me  as  constantly,  will  ever  lead  me  on 
in  a  never-to-be-forgotten  illusion. 

Do  you  recall  Menelaus'  lament  over  the  flight 
of  Helen? 

"For  vain  it  is,  when  one  hath  seemed  to  see 
good  things,  and  lo,  escaping  through  his  hands, 
the  vision  flies  apace  on  wings  that  follow  on 
the  paths  of  sleep." 

In  your  enthusiasm  over  the  architecture  of 
Egypt,  you  must  not  forget  Hellas. 

The  Egyptian  buildings  combine  enormous 
extent  with  most  elaborate  ornamentation.  This 
is  not  to  be  disputed,  but  the  Greeks  excel  them 
in  beauty  of  detail,  and  in  their  perfection  of 
sculpture. 

The  impressiveness  gained  by  size  should  be 
outdone  by  the  rapture  gained  by  unrivaled 
charm. 

The  grandeur  of  Egypt  is  acknowledged,  but 
the  grace  of  Hellenic  architecture  is  accepted. 

While  dwelling  upon  the  victories  of  Rameses 
the  Third,  you  must  remember  that  some  of  his 
enemies  carried  their  wives  and  children  with  them 
on  the  way  to  battle,  and  were  thus  very  greatly 
burdened,  but  Rammy  left  all  such  impedimenta 
at  home,  and  could  give  his  entire  attention  to  the 
business  in  hand,  and  he  does  not  pause,  nor  hesi- 


92          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

tate,  in  proclaiming,  "I,  Rameses  the  King,  be- 
haved as  a  hero  who  knows  his  worth." 

How  long  ago  that  seems,  and  we  have  our  lives 
to  live  to-day,  and  would  not  exchange  for  all 
the  glories  of  a  dead  King. 

The  shade  of  the  great  Achilles  says,  "I  would 
rather  till  the  soil  for  some  poor  master  than  reign 
here."  (In  Hades.) 

Good-by;  with  love  for  you, 

I  am  your  own 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  July  18,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

Please  do  not  importune  the  sun  to  shine  with 
any  more  splendor  just  now.  This  is  July  and 
the  thermometer  stands  90  degrees  in  the  shade. 
When  this  record  is  reached,  no  person  is  capable 
of  either  love  or  hate. 

And  do  you  not  know  that  thousands  of  roses 
bloom  in  the  garden  of  love,  and  one  has  only  to 
stoop  and  gather  them? 

Even  had  you  transplanted  the  most  lowly 
flower  that  grows,  instead  of  the  most  beautiful, 
I  should  give  it  smiles  for  its  daily  food  and  nour- 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          93 

ish  it  lovingly,  for  the  sake  of  the  one  who  had 
given  it  into  my  keeping. 

How  can  I  write  about  roses,  "white  or  crim- 
son," when  I  am  involved  with  ancient  Egypt? 
You  must  now  bury  yourself  in  the  past. 

Shishak  got  busy  and  took  Jerusalem,  robbing 
Solomon's  Temple  of  its  treasures. 

This  seemed  to  be  a  favorite  amusement  of 
conquerors,  and  that  noted  Temple  furnished 
relics  for  every  vandal  snatcher  that  came  along, 
a  full  supply  and  no  questions  asked. 

Titus  was  the  last  despoiler,  and  oh!  what  a 
day  that  was !  that  despotic,  wanton,  cruel  day ! 

The  Egyptians  employed  vivid,  rich,  and  last- 
ing color,  in  the  embellishment  of  their  buildings, 
which  so  earnestly  suggests  luxury. 

The  industrial  arts  were  greatly  advanced,  as- 
tronomy received  attention,  and  the  inhabitants 
were  made  to  see  stars  unless  a  certain  moral  code 
was  observed. 

The  punishment  for  perjury  and  almost  every- 
thing else  was  death.  Just  a  slight  straying  from 
the  straight  and  narrow  path  was  so  lightly  con- 
sidered that  only  their  legs  and  arms  were  cut 
off,  or  their  tongues  pulled  out. 

But  then  they  did  not  have  the  electric  chair 
for  killing  men  with  a  seductive  name  like  Sing- 


94          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

Sing  for  location.  How  this  would  have  de- 
lighted them,  and  it  certainly  belongs  to  that  cruel 
age  of  the  world. 

After  they  lost  their  independence,  which  was 
only  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago,  they  were 
first  a  turbulent  possession  of  Persia;  next  a  look- 
on-the-bright-side  combination  with  Alexander 
the  Great;  the  Arabs  then  had  a  slice  of  the 
Cherry  pie;  after  this  the  Romans  proceeded  to 
furnish  gossip  for  all  time  and  found  the  world 
well  lost  for  love  of  a  Queen,  who  was  dressed 
to  kill.  More  has  been  written  about  Mark  An- 
tony and  Cleopatra  than  any  two  in  all  history; 
then  France  made  several  fashionable  calls,  leav- 
ing, finally,  a  scientific  souvenir  by  opening  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez,  thus  making  real  the  dream  of 
a  Pharaoh  who  had  been  dead  many  hundred 
centuries,  and  now  the  English — but  why  say 
more*?  The  red  coats  are  everywhere  enlivening 
the  landscape. 

With  this  cheerful  (?)  ending  I  will  now  say 
good-by  to  Egypt. 

I  am  no  philosopher  with  a  cure  for  things,  but 
there  ought  to  be  some  stolen  bases  in  Egypt  or, 
since  Plato's  philosophy  is  good,  let  them  sing  a 
song. 

Paragraph  six  in  those  I  enclose  says  that  Mu- 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  95 

sic  can  save  a  man,  and  if  so,  why  not  a  nation*? 
Good    night,    my   horticultural    friend.     You 
should  plant  bachelor  buttons. 

Jestingly  yours, 

KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK      VIII.        THEME GOVERNMENT 

No  Comments 

1 .  There  were  four,  forms  and  four  individuals 
corresponding  with  them  worth  examining.    When 
we  have  finally  agreed  as  to  who  was  the  best,  and 
who  was  the  worst  of  them,  we  might  consider 
whether  the  best  was  not  also  the  happiest,  and 
the  worst  the  most  miserable. 

2.  The  four  governments  are  first  the  Cretan 
and  Spartan,  which  are  applauded;  next  there  is 
the  oligarchy;  this  is  not  equally  approved,  and 
may  have  many  evils;  thirdly  democracy;  and 
lastly  comes  tyranny,  great  and  famous,  and  is 
the  worst  disorder  of  the  State. 

3.  Nay,  the  States  are  as  men  are :  they  do  but 
grow  out  of  human  characters. 

4.  A    government    which    is   united,    however 
small,  cannot  be  moved. 

5.  Where  marriages  are  not  made  geometric- 
ally, the  gold  mingles  with  brass,  and  iron  with 

96 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY  97 

silver;  hence  there  will  arise  a  race  promoting 
discord,  and  arts  of  war  will  begin  to  prevail  over 
arts  of  peace.  Men  of  this  stamp  will  be  cov- 
etous of  money  like  those  who  live  in  oligarchies ; 
they  will  have  a  fierce,  secret  longing  for  gold 
and  silver,  and  will  hoard  their  treasures.  They 
will  also  have  castles  which  are  just  nests  for 
their  eggs,  spending  large  sums  on  their  wives 
or  any  others  whom  they  please. 

They  will  spend  another  man's  money  in  their 
craving,  avoiding  the  law — schooled  by  force, 
not  by  gentle  influences,  and  have  no  thought  for 
the  true  muse  of  reason  and  philosophy,  and  gym- 
nastics is  preferred  by  them  to  music. 

6.  The  best  guardian  for  a  man  is  philosophy 
tempered  with  music,  who  comes  and  takes  up  her 
abode  with  man  through  life,   and  is  the  only 
savior  of  his  virtue. 

7.  When  riches  and  virtue  are  placed  together 
in  the  scale  of  the  balance,  the  one  always  rises 
and  the  other  falls. 

8.  Is  the  existence  of  criminals  attributed,  then, 
to  the  want  of  education,  ill-training,  and  an  evil 
constitution  of  the  state? 

9.  Of  all  conversions  there  is  none  so  speedy 
or  so  sure  as  when  the  ambitious  youth  changes 
into  the  avaricious  one. 


98          PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

10.  You  cannot  have  in  a  citizen  the  love  of 
wealth  and  the  spirit  of  moderation.     One  or  the 
other  will  have  to  be  disregarded. 

1 1 .  Necessary  pleasures  are  those  of  which  we 
cannot  get  rid,  and  which  benefit  us  when  they  are 
satisfied. 

12.  One  of  these  is  the  pleasure  of  eating,  first 
as  beneficial,  and  also  needed  for  the  support  of 
life,  and  of  the  pleasures  of  love,  and  of  all  other 
pleasures  the  same  holds  good. 

Some  are  the  satisfaction  of  good  and  noble 
desires,  and  others  of  evil  desires.  If  evil,  his 
life  has  neither  order  nor  law.  This  he  terms  joy, 
and  freedom,  and  happiness. 

13.  Do  not  the  leaders  take  the  estate  of  the 
rich  and  give  it  to  the  people,  as  much  of  them 
as  they  can  consistently  with  keeping  the  greater 
part  themselves. 

14.  The  people  have  always  some  one  as  a 
champion  whom  they  nurse  into  greatness,  and 
this  is  the  very  root  from  which  a  tyrant  springs ; 
when  he  first  appears  above  ground  he  is  a  pro- 
tector. 

15.  Thus  liberty,  getting  out  of  all  order  and 
reason,  passes  into  the  harshest  and  bitterest  form 
of  slavery. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY          99 

NEW  YORK,  July  22,  1913. 
Dearest  Kate: 

Yes,  Plato  appreciated  music  and  expressed 
himself  many  times  in  its  favor,  and  I  often  won- 
der at  the  indifference  many  people  show  and  the 
lack  of  attention  they  give  to  music. 

There  is  a  song  in  my  heart  for  you  ever  re- 
peated- over  and  over  again,  and  its  melody  is 
coloring  my  life  with  richer  tones  than  those  you 
describe  as  denoting  luxury. 

This  rhythm  is  an  indulgence  to  the  poetry  that 
unconsciously  forms  through  the  influence  of  love. 

As  we  look  backward  in  those  remote  regions 
we  find  that  song,  like  all  art  in  Greece,  partook 
of,  or  was  connected  with,  their  Nature-worship. 

They  made  use  of  lyrical  poetry  upon  many 
occasions.  Their  marriages  were  celebrated  by 
suitable,  enlivened,  joyous  music;  solemn  festi- 
vals were  made  the  occasion  for  processions  of 
young  men  and  maids  crowned  with  olive  or 
fragrant  flowers,  and  singing  as  they  went  to 
the  shrines;  victory  in  war  was  distinguished  by 
martial  music,  and  the  conquerors  greeted  with 
garlands  of  flowers,  the  chanting  of  songs  and 
graceful  dancing,  accompanied  by  flutes  and  lyres. 

It  is  not  surprising  they  fought  well,  with  so 


ioo        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

much  honor  awaiting  them,  if  they  defeated  the 
enemy  and  returned  with  the  spoils. 

Plato  lays  down  the  theory  that  poetic  inspira- 
tion is  akin  to  madness,  and  we  may  conclude 
from  this  opinion  that  all  were  not  crowning  the 
poets  in  that  day,  the  same  as  now ;  in  fact,  poetry 
in  our  time  seems  to  be  almost  dying  an  ignomini- 
ous death,  with  no  one  as  chief  mourner. 

Poetry  is  so  necessary  to  song  that  it  must  in 
verse  always  achieve  a  slight  resemblance  to  art, 
while  lending  itself  to  the  never  failing,  immortal 
gift  of  music. 

Your  letter  seems  to  tell  me  of  your  gradual 
return  to  an  undisturbed  state  of  mind,  and  now 
again  I  see  the  image  of  my  beloved  one  before 
me  in  all  her  beauty  and  grace.  Just  thou  and 
I ;  no  one  else  in  all  this  wide  world. 

Then  I  awake  from  my  reverie  to  find  it  just 
the  fanciful  turn  of  my  thoughts  and  you  far  dis- 
tant. You  will  think  me  a  dreamer  and  in  my 
every  day  life  I  am  placed  where  I  must  be  prac- 
tical and  forced  to  put  aside  the  desire  to  be  con- 
stantly with  you. 

It  is  only  at  intervals  I  can  travel  to  the  realms 
of  joy,  where  you  alone  are  found. 

Good  night,  dearest. 

Your  own  for  ever  and  a  day, 

FRED. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         101 

CHICAGO,  July  25,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

Perhaps  to  dream  well  and  happily  is  to  live 
well  after  all,  and  we  are  subject  to  so  many  in- 
fluences at  the  present  time  that  the  barriers  are 
all  being  broken  down  and  we  both  are  becoming 
dreamers  while  being  subjugated  by  and  brought 
under  the  dominion  of  that  little  fellow  who  car- 
ries his  bow  and  arrow  on  purpose  for  those  who 
are  willing  to  test  and  taste  the  joy  of  life. 

The  little  tyrant  certainly  does  make  slaves  of 
his  subjects,  for  I  am  feeling  the  bonds,  and, 
though  they  are  of  velvet,  they  bind  with  an  im- 
perious pressure  which  I  am  yielding  to  without 
further  resistance,  and  I  find  myself  constantly 
happy  while  living  in  this  overpowering  light. 

"Look  within,"  said  Marcus  Aurelius. 
"Within  is  a  fountain  of  joy,  and  it  will  bubble 
up  if  thou  will  but  dig,"  and  we  need  not  to  dig 
deep  because  this  reciprocal  exchange  of  thought 
has  created  that  within  which  does  not  require  a 
patent  automatic  excavating  machine  to  bring  to 
the  surface. 

Happiness,  after  all,  is  only  a  state  of  the  mind, 
and  I  joyfully  accept  my  present  position  and 
watch  for  the  postman.  How  freely  we  are  ex- 
empting ourselves  from  our  chosen  themes. 


102         PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

Let  us  at  once  hasten  to  Athens  and  place  our 
minds  on  the  great  thoughts  to  be  found  there, 
for  we  both  know  there  is  something  ennobling  in 
the  quest  of  knowledge  which  will  carry  the  petty 
and  ordinary  affairs  of  every  day  pursuits  into 
oblivion. 

Yes,  this  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  it  is  a  bewil- 
dering process  to  obliterate  the  commonplace 
from  one's  consideration  entirely,  and  in  spite  of 
all  I  can  do,  mine  will  turn  to  a  hobo  hungeroso 
thought  of  that  angel  food  cake  with  the  straw- 
berries and  cream  I  am  to  have  at  supper  time. 

You  need  not  remind  me  that  this  is  imbecile. 
You  should  quickly  meet  my  proposition  above 
and  allure  my  wandering  thoughts  back  to  the 
aforesaid  wonderful  city. 

They  have  now  returned  at  your  bidding,  and 
at  my  own  desire,  and  I  am  bowing  low  to  Greek 
Art. 

The  familiar  names  of  Phidias  and  Praxiteles 
stand  first,  and  their  art  must  have  been  inspired 
by  the  enthusiasm  of  all  the  populace  for  every- 
thing beautiful  and  grand. 

The  religion  of  that  time  lent  its  aid  to  con- 
ception, and  Hellas  was  so  thickly  populated  with 
gods  there  was  no  limit  to  a  satisfactory  choice. 

The  Apollo  Belvedere  in  the  Vatican  is  distin- 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         103 

guished  as  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  Art,  and 
the  alert  poise  of  the  figure  inspires  the  thought 
of  youth  and  springtime. 

The  renowned  artists  of  ancient  Greece  made 
their  gods  in  the  image  of  man,  and  this  com- 
mingling of  the  human  figure,  with  the  ideal  di- 
vinity of  those  gods  they  worshiped,  bestowed 
upon  art  a  perfection  which  has  baffled  artists 
since  that  time  to  equal,  and  will  forever  forbid 
their  doing  so,  as  like  conditions  will  never  again 
be  supplied. 

You  seem  to  worship  music  rare  and  well  done ; 
that  is,  all  music  is  good  music  to  you.  It  is  not 
so  with  me,  and  when  I  hear  an  opera  I  know  it 
is  much  better  than  it  sounds  or  people  wouldn't 
go  wild  over  it.  I  fear  I  belong  to  the  indifferent 
ones  that  excite  your  wonder. 

You  will  find  Book  IX  in  this  letter.  There 
is  no  restlessness  about  Plato.  All  is  idealism, 
and  peace,  and  while  teaching  in  the  garden  of 
Academus  the  grace  of  his  speech  was  such  that 
it  was  said  the  bees  of  Hymettus  had  deposited 
their  honeys  upon  his  lips  in  the  cradle. 
Yours  with  love, 

KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK    IX.       THEME PARALLEL    OF 

THE    INDIVIDUAL   AND  THE    STATE 

No  Comments 

1.  Has  not  a  drunken  man  also  the  spirit  of  a 
tyrant*? 

2.  The  tyrant  never  tastes  of  true  freedom  or 
true  friendship,  and  also  they  are  utterly  unjust, 
if  we  are  right  in  our  notion  of  justice. 

3.  And  is  it  not  true  that  as  State  is  to  State 
in  virtue  and  happiness  Man  is  to  Man? 

4.  In  this  high  argument  of  good  and  evil  you 
should  not  conjecture  only.     You  should  have  a 
certainty. 

5.  He  is  the  most  miserable  of  men  who  has 
to  be  master  of  others,  when  he  is  not  master  of 
himself. 

6.  Then  we  may  assume  there  are  three  classes 
of  men — lovers  of  wisdom,  lovers  of  ambition, 
lovers  of  gain?     The  philosopher  estimates  other 

pleasures  as  nothing  with  the  pleasure  of  know- 

104 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         105 

ing  the  truth.  The  lover  of  honor,  will  he  not 
think  that  the  pleasure  of  riches  is  vulgar  and 
that  of  learning  as  all  smoke  and  nonsense1?  The 
Money-maker  will  contrast  the  vanity  of  honor 
or  of  learning  with  the  solid  advantage  of  gold  and 
silver? 

7.  The  lover  of  wisdom  has  a  double  experience 
over  the  lover  of  gain,  and  he  has  tasted  the  great 
sweetness  of  intellectual  pleasures. 

8.  The  wise  man  has  the  fullest  right  to  approve 
of  his  own  life.     Next  the  soldier  or  lover  of 
honor,  and  last  comes  the  lover  of  gain.     A  sage 
whispers  in  my  ear  that  no  pleasure  except  that 
of  the  wise  is  quite  true  and  pure;  all  others  are 
a  shadow  only. 

9.  Is  not  the  noble  that  which  subjects  the  beast 
to  the  man;  and  the  ignoble  that  which  subjects 
the  man  to  the  beast? 

10.  Are  not  luxury  and  softness  blamed  be- 
cause they  relax  and  weaken  and  make  a  man  a 
coward? 

1 1 .  Should  not  a  man  always  be  desirous  of 
performing  the  harmony  of  the  body  for  the  sake 
of  the  concord  of  the  soul?     And  he  will,  if  he 
has  true  music  in  him. 

12.  Then  if  this  be  his  chief  care,  he  will  not 
be  a  politician. 


106        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

NEW  YORK,  July  29,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

There  seems  to  be  an  element  bordering  close 
to  a  sympathetic  feeling  existing  between  us  now. 

I  think  I  can  detect  a  tinge  of  sadness  between 
the  lines  of  your  letter,  and  am  I  wrong  in  suppos- 
ing it  is  a  source  of  trouble  to  you  that  you  had 
no  excuse  to  write  in  a  sarcastic  vein*? 

It  is  surprising  how  little  one  can  conceal  their 
true  character  and  bias  of  mind  in  a  letter.  Con- 
versation lends  aid  to  deceit,  but  the  spirit  is 
necessarily  shown  in  a  letter,  with  no  possible  de- 
parture from  accurate  truth  and  sincerity. 

All  written  words  must  be  left  to  their  fate. 
You  will  soon  finish  the  proposed  ten  books  of 
the  Republic,  and  I  have  noted  your  selections, 
even  though  I  have  not  dwelt  upon  them  in  my 
replies. 

You  remember  our  compact1? 

Your  allusion  to  Julius  Csesar  a  short  time  ago 
awakens  my  enthusiasm. 

In  his  time  the  master  minds  of  the  few  seek- 
ing for  supremacy  and  working  together  with  a 
powerful  and  intelligent  people  instilled  with 
the  belief  that  might  is  right,  made  Rome  the 
prominent  city  of  olden  times. 

It  gave  to  the  world  men  whose  names  will 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         107 

never  die.  The  wonderfully  versatile  Julius 
Caesar, — from  whose  fertile  brain  issued  adminis- 
trative methods,  and  principles,  which  have  been 
of  great  use  to  other  countries  than  his  own, — 
stands  preeminent. 

There  were  men  of  great  renown,  such  as 
Cicero,  Augustus,  Pompey,  and  a  long  list  of  less 
prominent  names  which  claim  admiration,  but 
Csesar  outshines  them  all. 

Such  men  as  these,  coupled  with  a  capable  race 
of  people,  made  it  possible  for  Rome  to  reach  its 
high  pinnacle  of  fame. 

Yours,  with  a  world  of  affectionate  thought, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  August  2,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

My  hospitable  heart  gave  your  letter  a  place 
in  the  nearest  curve,  and  I  am  up  in  the  clouds. 

Thank  you  for  putting  me  there  and  without 
assistance  from  an  airship, — only  two  sheets  of 
paper  with  a  few  hieroglyphics,  which  are  quite 
as  sacred  to  me  as  the  Egyptian  symbols,  and 
much  easier  to  read. 

There  are  days  coming  our  way  and  patience 


io8        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

must  be  our  watchword,  while  we  carefully  watch 
our  facial  expressions. 

In  an  article  I  read  the  other  day  the  common 
belief  that  expression  indicates  character  is  re- 
futed. It  claimed  that  personal  appearance  is 
the  worst  fraud  and  humbug,  showing  nothing 
of  the  true  attributes  by  face,  head,  or  form. 

"Talk  of  the  guilt  of  the  eye !  Criminals  often 
have  eyes  like  a  dove  and  the  innocent  student 
the  expression  of  a  rascal.  A  spiritually  percep- 
tive mind  may  have  a  face  like  an  animal."  He 
quotes  Socrates  as  an  example,  with  his  fine  brain 
enclosed  in  a  monkey-like  head. 

"Dress  the  Governor,  the  parson,  or  banker  in 
striped  clothes,  shave  their  heads,  put  them  in 
cells,  and  everyone  who  sees  them  will  say: 
What  perverted  looking  creatures!  How  true  it 
is  that  you  can  tell  a  criminal  by  his  looks." 

Do  you  believe  this,  Fred4?  And  is  it  not  ever 
so  much  nicer,  and  more  satisfactory,  to  think  we 
know  our  friends  from  their  transient  change  of 
countenances'? 

I  wonder  if  when  I  thought  your  eyes  looked 
soulful,  you  were  only  struggling  to  solve  the 
knotty  problem  of  whether  you  would  wear  your 
blue  tie  to-morrow  to  match  your  blue  hose,  or 
would  better  wear  dark  red  as  more  becoming  to 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         109 

your  Italian  handsome  face.  How  do  I  know? 
Really  I  do  not  know,  but  I  believe,  and  have 
faith  in  the  romance  and  love  and  sentiment  of 
my  beloved,  still  believing  the  expression  of 
his  countenance  as  indicative  of  the  beautiful 
thoughts  contained  in  the  mind. 

Why  do  you  not  say  halt !  If  you  do  not  use 
some  compelling  term,  I  shall  write  and  write 
forever. 

I  will  close  with  a  favorite  quotation: 

"The  breeze  of  the  evening  that  cools  the  soft  air, 
That  kisses  the  blossoms  with  their  fragrance  so  rare, 
Is  its  fragrance  less  welcome,  less  sweet  its  perfume 
That  we  know  not  the  region  from  whence  it  has  come? 
Whence  the  wind  comes,  where  the  wind  goes 
Hither  and  thither,  but  whither  who  knows." 

Good  night,  Comrade. 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  August  5,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

Your  letter  is  here,  and  I  clutched  it  as  though 
it  were  the  most  precious  gift  that  could  come  to 
me,  and,  indeed,  I  so  deem  it. 

I  would  not  hope  to  obtain  from  anything  else 
the  pleasure  I  find  in  your  letters,  with  the  one  ex- 


no        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

ception  of  being  with  your  own  charming  self. 
They  often  give  me  the  impression  that  I  am  with 
you,  and  blessed  will  be  the  day  when  I  can  whis- 
per to  you  the  pent-up  love  of  a  heart  that  has 
long  been  in  suspense. 

In  one  of  your  letters  you  write  of  the  well- 
known  admiration  for  Greek  art,  and  I  am  equally 
enthusiastic  over  the  masterpieces  of  Italian  ar- 
tists, and  proud  of  the  possessions  of  my  own 
country. 

They  create  an  extraordinary  adoration  in  even 
the  most  callous  mind,  and  the  Transfiguration 
by  Raphael  brings  tears  to  the  eyes  unawares,  as 
the  sacredness  of  the  subject  creates  profound 
thought  and  reflection. 

The  pictures  that  stand  first  with  me  are  the 
frescoes  on  the  ceiling  of  St.  Peter's  Cathedral — 
the  angels  with  a  poise  that  tell  you  they  are 
singing  anthems  to  heaven,  and  leading  the  way 
for  all  mortals  to  follow. 

It  is  quite  usual  for  me  to  find  a  favorite  in 
each  gallery  I  visit,  for,  although  I  know  the  pic- 
tures are  all  asserting  their  right  to  be  recognized 
as  the  most  beautiful,  the  most  artistic,  and  the 
most  perfect  of  the  entire  collection,  I  can  always 
find  one  that  makes  a  deeper  inroad  upon  my 
admiration  than  all  the  others. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         in 

Our  mutual  adoration  of  art  will  forever  ce- 
ment a  bond  of  familiar  inspiration,  giving  us  a 
topic  of  conversation  which  will  never  produce 
ennui. 

This  is  one  of  the  outlines  supplied  us,  and  we 
have  but  to  furnish  the  detail. 

My  everlasting  love  to  you. 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  August  9,  1913. 
Dearest  'Fred: 

The  intellectual  barrenness  of  my  thought  is 
as  bleak  as  though  mine  were  a  minus  quantity. 

No  need  to  attempt  to  give  my  little  chat  with 
you  an  interesting  and  entertaining  complexion, 
for  it  must  ever  be  the  same  haphazard  letter  that 
I  always  write. 

My  only  regret  is  that  it  does  not  make  you 
yield  the  best  of  which  you  are  capable. 

Your  embrace  of  praise  has  mounted  to  my 
head  and  rules  there  as  Jupiter  of  old  ruled  his 
subjects,  not,  however,  in  the  intangible  half 
mystical,  half  superstitious  way,  established  at 
that  time,  but  like  a  shrine  devoted  to  the  best 
offerings  of  life,  and  my  happy  thoughts  are  the 
candles  perpetually  burning  at  the  altar  there, 


112        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

and  the  hope  of  a  beautiful  future  is  my  votive 
offering. 

I  am  glad  to  meet  you  on  the  plane  of  Italian 
art,  and  please  accompany  me  to  the  Uffizi  Palace 
in  Florence,  and  see  this  wonderful  storehouse  of 
art. 

It  was  originated  by  the  Medici  and  supple- 
mented by  the  Lorraine  families.  The  Tribune, 
which  is  the  finest  room  in  the  collection,  contains 
only  masterpieces,  as  you  know. 

The  most  important  is  the  statue  of  Venus  de 
Medici,  which  was  found  in  the  Hadrian  villa, 
having  been  brought  from  Hellas  in  times  long 
past. 

She  seems  the  first  plan  of  woman  and  should 
have  been  called  "Eve,  before  the  temptation 
came."  The  Wrestlers  is  a  statue  full  of  energy 
and  life. 

The  dancing  Faun  makes  one  laugh  in  sympa- 
thy, so  great  is  the  glee  in  the  face.  The  Grinder 
is  a  slave  grinding  his  knife,  but  with  face  turned 
toward  heaven,  as  if  imploring  and  seeking  aid 
from  some  power  above  to  better  his  condition, 
and  free  him  from  his  bondage. 

The  Apollo  of  the  school  of  Praxiteles  com- 
pletes the  sculpture. 

The  paintings  are  by  Murillo,  Correggio,  Ra- 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         113 

phael,  Michael  Angelo,  Titian,  Rubens,  and  Rem- 
brandt, making  a  collection  requiring  study. 

Raphael  excels  in  beauty;  Angelo  in  strength; 
Rubens  in  representation  of  flesh,  and  in  mytho- 
logical subjects;  Correggio  in  the  rapt  expression 
of  the  downcast  eye  in  his  wonderful  picture  of 
the  Madonna  and  Child,  and  in  the  contrast  of 
high  lights  with  deep,  dark  coloring  he  reaches  the 
acme  of  perfection.  (This,  by  the  way,  is  my 
favorite  picture.) 

Among  the  numerous  paintings  of  great  interest 
in  other  rooms  we  will  see  Del  Sarto's  Madonna, 
which  is  most  beautiful;  Christ  in  Limbo,  a  curi- 
ous picture  representing  Jesus  helping  spirits  out 
of  hell  into  heaven;  the  head  of  Medusa,  by  da 
Vinci  is  ghastly,  but  fascinating. 

The  Corridors  are  filled  with  both  sculpture 
and  paintings,  among  which  are  pictures  by  Ci- 
mabue,  the  father  of  painting,  and  Giotto,  his 
pupil,  both  being  represented  here  by  religious 
subjects. 

Many  rooms  are  en  suite,  showing  Flemish,  Ger- 
man, Dutch,  Northern  Italian,  French  and  Vene- 
tian schools,  and  all  containing  such  marvels  of 
beauty  in  art  that  one  master  seemed  to  vie  with 
another  to  produce  all  the  beauty,  and  skill,  and 
goodness  and  religion  there  is  in  the  whole  world. 


114        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

I  love  to  think  of  these  pictures  between  the 
day  and  the  dark,  when  the  shadows  fall,  and  I 
seem  to  hear  a  voice  speak  to  the  heart.  Then 
I  know  some  great  knowledge  is  being  filtered  to 
me  through  the  myriad  atmosphere  of  imagination 
that  makes  the  world  look  quite  new. 

This  may  be  a  mushroom  growth.  Who  can 
dissect  it"?  At  any  rate,  it's  an  awful  bother  to 
be  sentimental,  so  excuse  me ! 

You  will  find  Book  X  the  last  of  the  series, 
and  in  this  Plato  appears  to  be  good  friends  with 
poetry,  and  in  taking  my  leave  of  this  great  work 
I  will  venture  to  give  an  old  Greek  quotation: 

"Go!  take  now  these  words  within,  and 
weigh  them;  if  thou  find  me  false,  say  then  that 
divination  taught  me  nothing." 

Lovingly, 

KATE. 


PLATO 

REPUBLIC BOOK    X.       THEME IMMORTALITY 

No  Comments 

1.  There  are  three  arts  which  are  concerned 
with  all  things ;  one  that  uses,  another  that  makes, 
a  third  that  imitates  them. 

2.  And  may  we  not  fairly  conclude  that  the  im- 
itator has  no  knowledge  worth  mentioning1? 

3.  Imitation  is  only  a  kind  of  play  or  sport, 
and  is  thrice  removed  from  truth.     It  is  remote 
from  truth,  and  has  no  true  or  healthy  aim. 

4.  When  a  man  loses  what  is  dear  to  him,  is 
there  not  a  principle  of  law  and  reason  which  bids 
him  resist,  while  passion  urges  him  to  indulge  his 
sorrow? 

5.  To    be    patient    under    suffering    is    best. 
Nothing  is  gained  by  impatience,  because  no  hu- 
man  thing  is  of  serious  importance,   and  grief 
stands  in  the  way  of  that  which  at  the  moment  is 
most  required.     Good  counsel. 

6.  Yes,  this  is  the  best  way  to  meet  the  attacks 
of  fortune.     Is  not  the  passionate  and  fitful  tem- 
per easily  imitated? 

"5 


ii6        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

7.  The  reflection  is  not  often  made  that  from 
the  evil  of  others  the  fruit  of  evil  is  reaped  by 
ourselves,  or  that  the  feeling  of  pity  that  has  been 
nursed  and  has  acquired  strength  at  the  sight  of 
the  misfortune  of  others  will  come  out  in  our  own 
misfortune  and  cannot  easily  be  controlled. 

8.  Does  not  the  same  hold  good  also  of  the 
ridiculous  anger,  desire,  pain,  and  pleasure,  which 
are  held  to  be  inseparable   from  every  action1? 
In  all  of  them  poetry  feeds  and  waters  the  pas- 
sions,  instead  of  withering   and   starving.     She 
lets   them   rule   instead  of  ruling  them  as  they 
ought  to  be  ruled. 

9.  There  is  an  ancient  quarrel  between  Philos- 
ophy and  Poetry,  although  Plato  says  he  is  fond 
of  this  sister  art,  and  also  very  susceptible  to  her 
charms. 

10.  Is  there  a  use  in  poetry  as  well  as  a  de- 
light? 

1 1 .  We  see  that  poetry  being  such  as  she  is 
must  not  be  pursued  in  earnest  or  regarded  seri- 
ously, as  attaining  to  the  truth;  and  he  who  lis- 
tens to  her  will  be  on  his  guard  against  her  se- 
ductions. 

12.  Are  you  not  aware  that  the  soul  is  immor- 
tal  and   imperishable1?     It  cannot  be  dissolved 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         117 

by  any  external  evil,  and  if  existing  forever  must 
be  immortal. 

13.  We  shall  pass  safely  over  the  river  of  for- 
getfulness  and  our  soul  will  not  be  denied,  where- 
fore my  counsel  is  that  we  hold  fast  to  the  heav- 
enly way,  and  follow  after  justice  and  virtue, 
always  considering  that  the  soul  is  immortal,  and 
it  will  be  well  with  us  both  in  this  life  and  in  the 
pilgrimage  of  a  thousand  years  which  we  have 
been  reciting. 

FINIS. 


NEW  YORK,  August  12,  1913. 
My  Beloved: 

Your  fidelity  is  shown  to  me  by  the  manner  in 
which  you  have  so  faithfully  read  the  subject 
which  engaged  our  attention  some  time  ago. 

Your  last  selections  from  the  Republic  have 
been  read,  and  well  I  know  my  agreement  with 
you  was  to  reply  at  the  completion  of  Book  X. 

You  did  not,  however,  exact  a  limit  of  time, 
which  is  an  important  business  feature  in  making 
a  contract. 

Since  this  gives  me  an  advantage  I  will  claim 
a  lifetime  in  which  to  answer,  and  in  that  period 


ii8        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

we  will  talk  of  more  things  than  are  dreamed  of 
in  philosophy. 

While  thus  we  are  under  the  dominion  of  Plato 
we  will  know  a  love  which  will  prove  him  to  be  a 
magician,  as  well  as  a  philosopher. 

With  this  satisfactory  spirit,  may  we  feel  the 
allotment  of  content  in  all  our  undertakings. 
As  ever,  devotedly  yours, 

FRED. 


(Telegram,  from  Kate  Holbrook  to  Fred  Win- 
selli.) 

CHICAGO,  August  14,  1913. 
To-day  I  received  an  urgent  invitation  from 
my  friends  in  New  York,  who  are  soon  to  give  a 
ball  in  their  new  home  as  a  sort  of  house  warm- 
ing. This  has  tempted  me  to  make  the  trip.  I 
must  be  there  by  the  2oth,  and  have  concluded  to 
start  the  eighteenth. 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  August  15,  1913. 
Dearest  Kate: 

And  you  are  coming  to  New  York!     I  have 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         119 

read  your  words,  and  as  our  hearts  keep  apace  with 
the  fast  approaching  time  the  days  will  roll  by, 
drawing  nearer  and  nearer  to  that  golden  day 
when  you  arrive. 

Words  crowd  for  utterance  in  expressing  my 
joy  at  the  fulfillment  of  our  cherished  hopes  of 
meeting  once  again. 

Clear  indeed  is  my  picture  of  yourself,  just  as 
you  were  when  I  saw  you  last,  and  a  sensation  of 
tender  admiration  again  takes  full  possession  of 
me,  as  at  that  time.  Beauty  is  power. 

This  is  a  mistake,  as  your  beauty — your  pert 
beauty,  shall  I  say? — will  perish,  and  this  thought 
should  serve  as  a  warning  for  me  not  to  place  my 
heart  entirely  on  that  which  will  undergo  such 
change. 

I  ought  rather  to  think  only  that  you  are  good, 
and  light-hearted  and  companionable  always, 
and  those  are  the  qualities  to  endure.  Well,  I 
know  when  I  am  with  you  I  am  robbed  of  a  con- 
nected train  of  thought  and  the  opportunity  is 
lost  for  an  equitable  argument,  or  a  bold  and  con- 
vincing consideration  of  the  future.  I  am  inca- 
pable of  reasoning  with  myself,  and  have  but  one 
thought  to  tell  you — I  love  you!  Yes, — I  love 
you. 

Tell  me  when  I  may  see  you,  and  speed  the 


120        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

time  that  will  bring  you  to  me.     How  gay  and 
happy  we  shall  be  to  meet  again. 

Yours  forever, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  August  17,  1913. 

Dear  Fred: 

Your  thoughts,  I  fear,  are  not  very  conducive 
to  a  proper  serenity  of  mind  for  one  who  travels 
so  closely  the  reason  route.  There  may  be  more 
disturbance  in  the  locality  of  your  heart  when  my 
pert,  evanescent  beauty  disappears  in  a  vanishing 
fashion,  for  your  calculating  spirit  will  then  be 
left  stranded  with  no  redress  for  yourself. 

Better  let  reason  have  its  way,  and  place  your 
love  where  you  will  not  need  a  mind  cure,  or  find 
a  wreck  at  the  halting  place. 

Socrates  says,  "Know  thyself,"  and  if  you  can 
bear  up  under  the  penalty  of  such  an  acquaintance, 
this  is  good  advice. 

Anaxagoras  tells  us  that  "Reason  rules  the 
world." 

Plato  taught  that  the  ideas  of  reason,  or  our 
intuitions,  are  reminiscences  of  a  past  experience, 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         121 

and  I  know  a  whole  lot  more  of  things  in  this  line 
if  I  could  only  think  of  'em. 

Should  you  require  more  let  me  know,  for  I  do 
not  want  your  process  of  mental  deliberation  de- 
stroyed by  so  trifling  a  thing  as  a  little  love 
affair. 

Those  attributes  of  goodness,  gayety,  and  fa- 
vorable companionship  on  my  part  are  not  to  be 
depended  upon.  Never  am  I  tuned  up  to  those 
lofty  qualifications  you  are  endeavoring  to  invest 
me  with.  I  surely  would  wabble  a  little,  and 
then,  you  poor  dear !  you  would  not  have  a  straw 
left  to  place  that  love  upon,  which  you  had  so 
carefully  estimated  through  a  series  of  subtrac- 
tion. 

I  was  intending  to  love  you  quite  differently, 
with  a  riotous  love,  without  counterpoise,  or  bal- 
ance, and  abandon  myself  to  the  enchantment  of 
loving  you  all  the  days  of  my  life,  without  any 
fear  that  passion  would  grow  less  when  you  be- 
came bald,  and  stooped  a  little,  and  wore  glasses, 
but  now,  alas!  I  see  I  am  not  to  have  this  great 
expansion  of  the  heart. 

Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  misery  thereof. 

I  go  to  New  York  to-morrow,  and  will  tele- 
phone you  my  Long  Island  address. 


122         PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

If  you  can  find  time  and  inclination  to  call 
upon  me,  I  will  give  you  the  ancient  Greek  greet- 
ing, "REJOICE,"  and  until  such  time  as  we  may 
meet,  I  am 

Most  graciously  your  Malapert, 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  August  19,  1913. 
Dear  Kate: 

Your  message  and  address  are  received.  You 
are  near  me  now,  and  my  impatience  and  inclina- 
tion prompt  me  to  ask  you  to  give  me  to-morrow 
evening  in  which  I  may  receive  your  promised 
greeting. 

You  are  to  me  the  embodiment  of  all  I  wish, 
and  I  am  so  eager  to  see  you  again  that  this  close 
date  seems  distant. 

Please  send  me  a  line  if  this  meets  with  your 
approval. 

Yours  ever, 

FRED. 

NEW  YORK,  August  20,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

In  answer  to  your  request,  I  am  making  an  en- 
gagement for  this  evening  with  a  New  York  gen- 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         123 

tleman  who  likes  strangers,  and  who  has  actually 
made  the  most  wonderful  love  to  me,  whom  he 
casually  met. 

I  am  not  sure  whether  he  has  done  this  in  a 
missionary  spirit  only,  but  I  do  know  he  succeeded 
in  making  a  convert,  and  said  convert  has  learned 
her  lesson  so  gladly  that  she  would  not  give  back 
the  love  she  gave  and  is  still  giving,  even  to  be  a 
barbarian  again. 

Could  we  but  think  with  the  intensity  we  love 
what  great  things  we  would  accomplish. 

I  had  -a  delightful  trip,  and  when  I  arrived,  a 
few  hours  ago,  my  friends  here  welcomed  me  in 
so  cordial  a  manner  that  I  was  immensely  glad 
I  came. 

While  awaiting  your  call  to-night  I  shall  keep 
telling  myself  we  must  avoid  debatable  ground. 
Please  do  not  forget  the  ball  to-morrow  evening. 

I  am,  my  dearest  loadstar, 

Yours  forever  and  anon, 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  August  22,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

The  two  delightful  evenings  I  have  had  with 
you  impels  me  to  ask  a  great  favor. 


124        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

Trusting  I  am  not  selfishly  imploring  you  to 
give  me  more  time  than  your  short  stay  in  the 
East  would  warrant,  I  am  writing  to  ask  you  to 
have  dinner  with  me  this  evening. 

If  you  can  accept,  in  spite  of  the  storm,  please 
send  me  a  message  without  delay. 

The  party  last  evening  dedicated  your  friend's 
new  home  in  a  delightful  way,  and  those  dances 
we  had  together  were  entrancing.  I  seemed  to 
forget  everything  but  the  music,  and  yourself,  for 
your  face  alone  in  all  that  throng  was  vivid  to  me. 

I  think  the  whole  of  life  rests  upon  rhythmical 
ebb  and  flow,  though  we  are  unconscious  of  this 
influence. 

Anticipating  your  appetite  will  assist  me  in 
directing  your  way  toward  the  dining  table,  I  am 

Expectantly, 

FRED. 


NEW  YORK,  August  22,  1913. 
Dear  Fred: 

Your  invitation  is  accepted  with  pleasure,  and 
even  though  the  rain  storm  seems  persistent,  the 
elements  have  no  power  to  discourage  me,  as  you 
know  of  "Eld." 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         125 

In  contemplating  our  dinner  event,  I  will  give 
you  a  little  toast: 

Deep,  deep  we  are  drinking  of  life's  choicest  wine, 
And  all  kinds  of  weather  is  sunshiny  weather, 
Because  I  am  yours,  dear,  and  you  are  mine. 

Joyfully, 

KATE. 


(Kate  Holbrook  to  Florence  Bows  field.} 

NEW  YORK,  August  23,  1913. 
My  Dear  Pal: 

A  secret  is  no  pleasure!  Certainly  not!  For 
what  is  the  use  of  knowing  anything  unless  you 
let  somebody  know  you  know? 

I  now  propose  to  tell  you  all  I  know,  and  con- 
siderably more.  You  have  already  anticipated 
me  and  divined  what  I  am  to  say,  and  there  re- 
mains nothing  for  me  to  do  but  verify  your  hasty 
conclusion. 

Yes,  it  is  true!  I  have  promised  to  marry 
Fred,  and  this  will  occur  on  the  25th  day  of  next 
month. 

This  early  date  will  surely  surprise  you,  and  it 
surprises  me  as  well,  and  what  do  you  think !  He 
was  so  sure  of  my  answer  that  he  had  already 


126        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

bought  a  love  of  a  cottage  for  us.  I  did  not 
know  whether  to  be  angry  with  this  certainty  or 
not,  but  when  I  went  to  see  the  place  to-day,  it 
fairly  created  a  numbness  in  my  heart,  so  great 
was  the  joy  I  knew. 

Mr.  Carnegie  has  said: 

"Earth  can  make  a  heaven  only  when  there's 
a  happy  home  to  live  in.  It  is  not  so  much  that 
heaven's  our  home,  as  home's  our  heaven." 

This  will  be  a  new  experience  for  me,  as  I  have 
been  such  a  transplanted  flower  of  the  thistle 
variety,  thriving  even  in  barren  ground. 

How  glad  I  am  to  have  learned  to  make  those 
puddings  and  cakes,  and  potato  salad,  and  things 
in  school,  for  now  I  am  to  be  a  regular  cook,  in- 
stead of  a  baseball  fan. 

I  do  not  understand  any  more  than  a  clam  how 
he  ever  selected  me,  unless  it  is  because  I  am  an 
orphan,  and  that  must  have  been  a  great  recom- 
mendation in  my  favor. 

You  will  laugh  when  I  tell  you  that  almost 
everything  I  say  to  him  proves  a  shock.  He  said 
at  dinner  last  evening  that  "our  characteristics 
were  greatly  dissimilar,"  when  I  saucily  answered : 
"That  is  too  true,  but  we  live  in  a  good  age,  and 
by  the  time  we  have  analyzed  each  other's  attri- 
butes, and  passed  unfavorable  opinions  on  them, 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         127 

some  great  man  or  woman,  or  several  of  them, 
will  have  established  a  matrimonial  peace  com- 
mission, and  we  can  ask  that  Tribunal  to  adjust 
our  difficulties." 

I  wish  you  could  have  seen  the  expression  on 
his  face.  I  have  been  laughing  about  it  ever 
since.  I  do  not  know  why  he  is  so  precise,  and  it 
amuses  me. 

This  is  not  a  criticism,  for  I  am  really  very 
deeply  in  love  with  him.  He  is  so  handsome, 
strong,  and  about  one  hundred  per  cent,  truth- 
ful.  : Do  you  see  that  line  I  am 

making"?  It  is  to  save  you  from  one  solid  hour's 
talk  upon  the  same  transparent  subject. 

There  is  one  thing  more  I  must  say:  I  do  so 
much  wish  he  loved  me  for  what  I  really  am,  in- 
stead of  what  he  would  like  me  to  be. 

We  shall  have  a  quiet  wedding  in  Chicago,  and 
we  trust  that  you  and  Mabel,  together  with  two 
of  his  friends  here,  will  help  us  through,  and  into 
the  marriage  state  of  discipline. 

I  shall  return  home  in  a  few  days,  with  all  plans 
matured  and  a  trunk  full  of  pretty  things,  having 
extended  my  visit  here  somewhat  longer  than  I 
had  intended. 

The  stores  here  are  fine  and  filled  with  the 
choicest  fabrics.  The  tall  buildings  are  so  close 


128        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

together,  and  loom  to  such  heights  in  the  air,  in 
a  tower-like  fashion,  that  I  am  wondering  how 
many  millions,  or  billions,  has  been  spent  to  shut 
out  the  light  and  sunshine.  They  seem  to  crush 
the  mind,  and  this  is  the  very  good  reason  why 
I  have  only  written  you  a  word  or  two.  Do  you 
not  wish  they  had  been  yet  more  crushing?  Have 
patience;  I  am  ending  now. 

I  know  you  and  my  other  chums  there  will  be 
glad  of  my  new  found  happiness,  and  we  will 
not  lack  words  to  "talk  it  over." 

Yours  ever  lovingly, 

KATE. 


(Telegram,  from  Kate  Holbrook  to  Fred  Win- 
selli.) 

CHICAGO,  August  27,  1913. 
Arrived  safely.     Had  an  enjoyable  trip. 

KATE  HOLBROOK. 


NEW  YORK,  August  28,  1913. 
My  Betrothed: 

The  test  of  love  for  you  alone  is  such  that  I 
can  look  henceforth  upon  the  happy  side  of  life 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         129 

constantly,  and  it  is  proving  to  be  a  splendid  rem- 
edy to  draw  me  from  the  dull  care  of  my  business 
life,  and  make  shorter  the  long  hours  of  my  day. 
It  is  given  to  you  to  make  all  my  days,  henceforth, 
either  bright  or  dark. 

I  have  been  wondering  whether  or  not  we  have 
been  giving  sufficient  credit  to  Brighton,  and  if  it 
is  not  time  to  pay  up  our  dues.  This  place  by  the 
sea  has  been  the  inspiration  to  us;  therefore,  it  is 
not  surprising  to  note  the  prominence  it  has  been 
given  and  why  it  has  been  made  the  theme  of 
practically  the  greater  part  of  our  correspond- 
ence. 

We  have  also  been  under  the  spell  of  Plato, 
and  he  has  PAVED  THE  WAY  to  our  happiness,  the 
golden  way  bordered  by  the  sweetest  flowers  that 
grow. 

The  angels  themselves  will  envy  us  the  unmeas- 
urable  haven  that  we  have  found. 

I  will  not  attempt  a  description  of  the  belong- 
ings, one  by  one,  which  I  am  placing  in  our  home, 
only  partially  completing  them  until  the  ap- 
pointed time  when  you  will  reign  there  with  a 
despotic  rule,  hidden  under  a  saucy,  dexterous 
sway,  that  will  hold  your  subject  as  a  willing  cap- 
tive. 

Let  me  know  your  plans  and  mine  will  be  in 


130        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

accordance  with  your  wish  in  all  arrangements 
you  make  for  our  wedding. 

Good-by,  dear  one. 

Your  own 

FRED. 

CHICAGO,  Sept.  2,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

You  surely  knew  you  could  write  a  love  letter 
which  would  make  the  heart  vibrate  one  hundred 
and  sixteen  beats  to  the  minute,  and  it  was  no  idle 
boast  of  yours  when  you  said  what  you  did. 

I  have  responded  with  the  aforesaid  one  hun- 
dred plus;  are  you  content,  or  should  I  make 
it  two  hundred,  in  spite  of  the  limitations  of  that 
organ"? 

Let  me  tell  you  again  and  yet  again  that  I  am 
grateful  for  the  gift  of  love  bestowed  upon  me, 
and  not  one  little  trivial  doubt  concerning  this 
treasure  can  ever  assail  my  thoughts. 

You  are  my  first  love,  nor  would  it  be  possible 
for  me  ever  to  forget.  You  know  this  too  well, 
and  now,  instead  of  repeating  a  twice  told  tale. 
I  will  tell  you  about  a  funny  decision  by  an  all- 
wise  umpire  on  the  diamond  out  West. 

When  the  baseball  teams  lined  up  for  play  it 
was  found  that  one  team  was  shy  a  man. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         131 

Thompson  of  the  cork  leg  volunteered  and  was 
accepted. 

The  game  proceeded  and  the  score  was  six  to 
six  in  the  ninth  inning  and  very  exciting. 
Thompson  came  to  the  bat  and  the  first  thing  he 
did  was  to  knock  a  two-bagger.  He  then  stole 
third  and  started  home,  when  one  of  his  team  hit 
to  the  short  stop. 

The  ball  was  then  tossed  to  the  catcher,  ten 
feet  ahead  of  the  runner,  when  suddenly  the  cork 
leg  flew  off  and  luckily  crossed  the  plate,  while 
the  owrier  of  the  leg  dropped  to  the  ground. 

The  catcher  stepped  out  and  tagged  the  prone 
figure  of  Thompson,  but  the  umpire  was  watching 
the  game  and  ruled  that  the  foot  at  the  end  of 
the  cork  leg  touched  the  base,  making  a  safe  run, 
and  winning  the  game. 

After  consulting  the  rule  book  he  declared  there 
was  no  precedent  and  held  firmly  to  his  decision. 
Then  the  last  baseball  game  of  the  season  broke 
up  in  a  row. 

I  would  have  liked  to  see  the  festive  joy  of 
those  fans,  and  wish  I  could  have  been  there. 
What  fun !  and  was  it  not  a  good  play? 

Some  of  the  players  in  our  team  here  ought  to 
have  cork  legs,  considering  the  way  they  are 
playing. 


132         PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

I  wonder  if  I  am  to  attend  a  game  semi-occa- 
sionally  after  I  am  a  promissory  note,  made  le- 
gally over  to  you,  without  interest.  Do  I  have 
your  promise  that  I  shall  go,  with  yourself  as  an 
escort? 

Sometimes  I  have  a  deep,  dark  fear  that  as 
domestic  goods  I  shall  be  a  total  failure,  and  you 
should  not  have  abundant  faith  in  me,  even  though 
I  say  honestly  I  intend  to  try  hard  for  success 
with  a  fireless  cooker  and  those  glorious  prize 
receipts  in  the  newspapers.  As  time  passes  from 
day  to  day  why  should  not  I  become  expert? 
Sure  thing! 

Good-by.     All  the  joys  of  earth  to  you. 

KATE. 

NEW  YORK,  Sept.  5,  1913. 
My  Dear  Kate: 

Moved  by  your  letter  into  that  region  in  which 
your  own  feeling  has  led  you,  I  find  reflected 
therein  an  image  of  all  that  is  cheery  and  bright. 
Not  even  the  prospect  of  the  latest  scientific  cook- 
ing has  power  to  discourage  me. 

My  health  is  normal  and  appetite  good,  and  I 
venture  to  say  you  can  fearlessly  practice  upon 
me  until  you  achieve  the  numerous  victories  which 
you  are  sure  to  attain. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         133 

I  feel  confident  I  can  serve  with  absolute  free- 
dom from  danger  my  probation  of  servitude,  and 
we  will  finally  have  dishes  that  will  make  us  con- 
noisseurs in  table  delicacies. 

"Oh,  the  fairies'  charm  shall  forever  hold, 
Forever  for  you  and  me." 

Someone  has  said  that  he  who  creates  a  new 
dish  does  more  for  the  human  race  than  he  who 
discovers  a  star. 

Right  here  while  thinking  of  those  who  have 
helped  -mankind,  what  do  you  think  of  the  seven 
wonders  of  the  modern  world,  as  compared  to 
those  of  long  ago*? 

The  latter  consisted  of  magnificent  structures, 
lovely  hanging  gardens,  matchless  statuary, 
tombs,  walls,  and  a  lighthouse,  all  of  which  were 
great  performances,  and  no  doubt  desirable,  but 
of  very  little  benefit  to  the  world  in  general. 

Compare  these  with  to-day's  wireless,  elec- 
tricity, airships,  automobiles,  tall  buildings,  rail- 
roads and  steamships,  making  life  good  and  valu- 
able to  almost  the  whole  universe. 

Any  one  of  these  add  more  to  the  comfort  and 
happiness  of  the  multitude  than  did  any  of  those 
celebrated  wonders  of  old.  Do  you  not  think  so? 

The  Greeks  in  the  period  six  hundred  years 


134        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

before  Christ  really  obtained  electricity  by  rub- 
bing amber,  and  the  word  Elektron,  meaning  am- 
ber, gives  us  our  word  electricity.     That  splendid 
word  that  heralds  modern  civilization. 
Yours  ever  lovingly, 

FRED. 


CHICAGO,  Sept.  14,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

How  you  rob  my  days  of  loneliness  by  your 
loving  devotion.  I  cannot  write  to  you,  dear  one, 
the  myriad  of  thoughts  that  have  passed  through 
my  mind  concerning  you,  and  as  this  letter  speeds 
on  its  way  toward  Manhattan,  it  carries  all  of  love 
in  its  enclosure. 

The  uncompromising  martyrdom  you  are  as- 
suming in  the  servitude  line  makes  me  eager  to 
become  proficient  that  I  may  rescue  you  from  the 
evils  that  flesh  is  heir  to,  and  I  am  preparing  a 
book  of  receipts,  a  few  of  which  I  will  copy,  and 
I  truly  hope  they  will  produce  a  pleasurable  ap- 
petite. 

i . — Plato's  "Demi-tasse. 
One  cup  of  justice. 
Two  pounds  of  argument,  filtered. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

One  thousand  interrogation  marks. 
One  tiny  salt-spoon  of  poetry. 
A  multitude  of  remedies  against  evil. 
Served  with  honey. 

2. — Rameses'  Blackberry  Pie. 
Choice  portions  of  wrath. 
A  shipload  of  spoils  flavored 
With  a  bundle  of  conceit,  blended 
Together  with  arrogance. 

3. — Socrates'  Deviled  Eggs. 

One  dozen  eggs  with  no  recall. 
Beaten  thoroughly  with  a  shrew's  jeers. 
Seasoned  with  plenty  of  pepper. 
Served  with  future  Bacon. 
Submitted  to  the  homage  of  the  world. 

4. — Alexander  the  Great's  Pancakes. 
One  Georgian  knot,  sliced. 
Big  bits  of  book  companionship. 
First  quality  of  rubber. 
Served  with  Aristotle's  finest 
Grade  of  syrup. 

5. — Cleopatra's  French  Pastry. 
Pearls  dissolved  in  vinegar. 


136         PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

Crust  flaked  with  beguiling  smiles  and  wiles. 
Filling  of  whipped  cream. 
Served  on  gilded  barge. 

Many  demands  upon  my  time  are  interfering 
with  my  study  of  cuisine,  and  I  must  now  leave 
you  and  the  pretty  home  that  is  no  longer  to  be  an 
imagination,  but  a  reality. 

All  the  tenderness  of  my  nature  has  full  sway 
as  I  indulge  myself  in  the  arrangement  of  each 
detail  in  the  interior.  The  table  where  we  are 
indulging  in  my  theoretical  cooking  is  placed  in 
the  middle  of  the  room, — with  its  white  linen;  its 
rosy-posy  china;  its  bright  silver;  and  blossoming 
flowers.  Looking  further  I  see  the  pretty  living- 
room  with  artistic  though  simple  furnishings. 

Best  of  all,  you  are  interpreting  every  moment 
the  heretofore  foreign  language  of  love  to  me. 

A  King  and  Queen  might  be  willing,  and  glad, 
to  lay  their  crowns  aside  for  such  joy  as  will  be 
ours. 

And  now  the  scene  undergoes  a  change,  and  I 
must  give  my  attention  to  the  trousseau  that  is 
so  necessary  an  adjunct  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
brides. 

The  lovely  wedding  dress  which  is  under  way, 
snowy  white  and  daintily  embroidered,  is  telling 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         137 

me  when  I  gaze  upon  its  filmy  fleeciness  that  my 
happy  thoughts  are  etching  a  more  beautiful  pat- 
tern on  the  dawn  of  another  day,  and  that  love 
is  caught  and  held  closely  in  all  the  threads  and 
meshes  of  the  fabric. 

Lovingly  your  own 

KATE. 


NEW  YORK,  Sept.  18,  1913. 
My  Beloved: 

The  exhilaration  I  knew  when  I  read  your  ref- 
erence to  our  future  nest  was  more  than  I  can  tell, 
and  I  now  believe  that  the  wish  I  had  dared  to 
entertain  will  become  a  reality,  and  it  is  revealed 
to  me  that  your  presence  will  make  our  unpreten- 
tious home  a  beautiful  palace. 

Only  the  shortest  possible  time,  in  accordance 
with  your  plans,  now  intervenes  between  this  time 
and  that  to-be-envied  hour  when  I  claim  the  one 
I  have  long  set  forth  as  the  pledge  of  all  that  I 
desire  to  find  in  truth  and  loyalty,  and  I  am  lifted 
to  the  heights  of  joy,  with  the  thought  of  giving 
my  love  in  return  for  the  love  given  me. 

Your  own 

FRED. 


138        PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

CHICAGO,  Sept.  20,  1913. 
My  Dear  Fred: 

You  are  looking  for  a  letter,  I  know,  the  last 
of  our  long  correspondence,  and  I  trust  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  sentiments  contained  therein  will 
continue  in  unselfishness. 

I  am  still  exulting  in  the  lovely  creations,  pre- 
pared for  me,  and  they  take  me  back  in  imagina- 
tion to  the  luxury  described  in  the  Arabian  Nights, 
and  I  will  take  a  tip  right  here  and  tell  you  a 
thousand  and  one  times  the  living  truth — I  love 
you! 

When  you  have  heard  the  words  repeated  over 
and  over  so  many  times  I  think  you  will  be  grate- 
ful if  I  suddenly  say : 

"My  dear  Fred,  kindly  come  down  to  earth, 
from  the  remote  portion  of  the  solar  system  you 
have  climbed  to,  and  we  will  discuss  the  proper 
manner  to  tie  the  knot." 

Florence  and  Mabel,  with  the  assistance  of  your 
two  friends,  will  direct  our  steps  in  the  way  in 
which  we  should  go,  and  see  we  do  not  wander 
in  the  way  we  should  not  go. 

There  will  be  a  host  of  friends  present,  and 
everything  artistic  and  pretty.  We  have  had  a 
song  composed  for  the  occasion,  each  verse  ending 
with  the  two  lines: 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         139 

"Here   comes   the  bride. 
God   save  the  groom." 

i 

After  the  ceremony  and  congratulations,  there 
will  be  a  symposium  followed  by  dancing. 

This  will  suggest  to  you  and  me  the  first  time 
we  met,  when  Fate  got  busy  and  started  us  on  the 
road  to  find  the  most  essential  things  in  life,  com- 
panionship and  love,  and  very  many  thousand 
and  one  times  will  we  tell  the  old  and  yet  ever 
new  story  to  each  other,  knowing  the  earth  and 
heaven  and  all  things  bright  and  lovely  were 
created  for  our  sakes  alone,  and  that  not  to  be 
happy  would  be  a  sin  impossible  to  our  sweet  en- 
chantment. 

When  this  reaches  you  the  time  for  your  de- 
parture is  near,  and  now  in  saying  a  final  farewell 
to  our  many  letters,  I  must  refer  to  the  immemo- 
rial company  we  have  been  in,  and  once  again 
quote  Plato: 

"True  love  is  a  love  of  beauty  and  order — 
temperate  and  harmonious." 

Your  own 

KATE. 

NEW  YORK,  Sept.  22,  1913. 
My  Dear  Love: 

Your  plans  require  no  criticism,  and  anything 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY 

nice  you  can  think  of  in  addition  my  unspoken 
acquiescence  is  implied. 

My  two  friends  and  I  leave  for  Chicago 
to-morrow,  and  I  count  over  and  over  my  good 
fortune,  as  a  miser  counts  his  gold. 

My  words  you  can  read  in  a  short  space  of 
time,  but  the  strata  of  thought  which  cannot  be 
explained  or  expressed  should  entertain  you 
longer. 

Not  to  be  outdone  by  you  I  will  close  our  cor- 
respondence with  Plato's  words: 

"And  when  a  beautiful  soul  harmonizes  with  a 
beautiful  form,  and  the  two  are  cast  in  one  mold, 
that  will  be  the  fairest  of  sights  to  him  who  has 
the  eye  to  contemplate  the  vision." 
Yours  eternally, 

FRED. 


(Telegram,  to  Kate  Holbrook.} 

BUFFALO,  Sept.  24,  1913. 

My  friends  and  I  are  en  route.     Reach  Chicago 
to-morrow  morning  at  9  o'clock. 

FRED  WINSELLI. 


PLATO  PAVED  THE  WAY         141 

CLIPPING 

The  wedding  of  Miss  Catherine  Holbrook  and 
Frederick  Winselli  took  place  Thursday  evening, 
September  twenty-fifth,  at  the  home  of  the  bride's 
guardian,  Mr.  E.  P.  Willard,  2906  Huntington 
Avenue.  The  ballroom,  which  was  used  for  the 
occasion,  was  beautifully  decorated  with  flowers 
deftly  wrought  in  bowers  of  green  foliage. 

The  Rev.  Carlton  Stephens  officiated.  The 
bride  was  attended  by  Miss  Florence  Bowsfield 
and  Miss  Mabel  King.  Mr.  H.  W.  Battalia  and 
Mr.  Louis  Romani  of  New  York  city  acted  as 
attendants  to  the  groom. 


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